A Big Decrease in Coronavirus Positivity Rate
Pakistan reported Monday that the national coronavirus positivity rate had remained well below 5% over the past week, with the country’s top health official attributing the declining trend to “effective” government policies; including restrictions on public movement and effective screening of international travelers. Officials recorded 43 deaths and detected more than 2,100 new cases in the last 24 hours; raising the national tally of deaths to nearly 21,000 and infections to more than 921,000 since the pandemic hit the South Asian nation early last year.
National Positivity Ratio:
The national positivity ratio decreased to just over 4% from more than 11% a couple of weeks ago. Last week, health authorities reported the detection of the first case of a fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus which has caused record infections and deaths in neighboring India; threatening Pakistan’s gains against the disease.
But Faisal Sultan, an infectious disease physician who is also special assistant to the prime minister on national health services, told VOA that an “effective” screening system for international travelers and other measures to deal with the health crisis has so far enabled the country to keep the situation under control in a country of about 220 million. “I would say we are not out of the woods yet; it seems at this point that I don’t foresee an India-like situation;” Sultan, who is directing all health-related interventions and measures against the pandemic; told VOA in a detailed interview at his office in Islamabad.
Vaccination of Coronavirus in Positivity Rate:
A teacher receives the first shot of the Sinovac coronavirus vaccine from paramedics in a vaccination center at a school in Lahore, Pakistan, on May 28, 2021. A teacher receives the first shot of the Sinovac coronavirus vaccine from a paramedic in a vaccination center at a school in Lahore, Pakistan, on May 28, 2021. He noted that while his team has also detected a few cases of the variants prevalent in South African and Brazil; Pakistan is one of nearly 100 countries where a variant first detected in Britain; known as B117, is currently predominant.
“A large part of this wave that they [India] are going through; at least as best as I am aware, it was B117; and it was not necessarily the Indian variant that was doing it;” he said. The Pakistani government announced Monday that later this week it would begin scheduling vaccinations for citizens 18 years old and above. The free national drive has so far inoculated more than seven million people; with officials reporting the number of daily vaccinations growing to fewer than 400,000.
Government Surveys:
Sultan said more than 70% of about 900,000 health care workers across Pakistan have been vaccinated so far. He added that the government intends to vaccinate; 70% of the 100 million eligible population by the end of this year. People queue to receive the first shot of the Sinopharm COVID-19; vaccine at a vaccination center in Karachi, “We really do think that to reach our targets, we need to go over the 500,000 a day mark; perhaps the 600,000 a day mark. So, I think that we really need to ramp up our vaccinations.”
Sultan said government surveys have found that “at least two-thirds” of the Pakistani population is willing to get vaccinated for coronavirus. “So, the vaccine centers will have to go close to their homes. It will have to be easy and accessible. It will have to be so easy that in the United States; even normal retail pharmacies were allowed to do the vaccination,” he said. Sultan said the government really needed “to get at least a quarter of its population”; in dense urban areas vaccinated before Pakistan “can even talk about any relaxation” in coronavirus-related restrictions; including asking those inoculated against the disease to remove their masks.
