Vaccine to start rolling in by early February
Just ten volunteers remain in clinical trials for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese state-owned firm Sinopharm under the Canadian and Chinese joint venture CanSinoBIO. Meanwhile the drug, which has a reported efficacy of 86 percent, is already under process for registration with the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP). The first consignment of 1.1 millions vials is expected to be rolled out to frontline healthcare workers only in the first phase of vaccination in early February. The federal government on Tuesday, January 12, launched registrations for frontline healthcare workers in public and private health units – the government has stressed that only registered personnel will be receive the vaccine.
Average 46 COVID-19 deaths daily in January
Federal Minister for Planning, Development, Reforms and Special Initiatives and head of the National Command and Operations Center (NCOC) notes that daily case count, deaths and admissions in hospitals are now on a downward trend after hitting their peak in December.
The second wave was proven deadlier than the first wave. Since January 1 to 12, an average of 46 and a total of 557 people have died every day due to the novel coronavirus disease. The current national death toll stands at 10,772 and is expected to cross 11,000 by next week if casualties continue to be reported at the current trend.
In the past 24 hours, 2,123 new coronavirus cases were reported at a daily case positivity rate of 5.38 percent while 55 patient succumbed to the disease. 26 more patients turned critical in the same time frame, taking the total number of critical cases in the country to 2,366. 2,973 people however managed to beat the virus, indicating a slowly increasing recovery rate of 91.4%.