COVID-19: NCOC approves Sinopharm, Sinovac vaccines for children aged above 12

COVID-19: NCOC approves Sinopharm, Sinovac vaccines for children aged above 12

Islamabad (Web Desk): The Health Expert Committee of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has approved the Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines for administration to children aged above 12 starting November 15.

In a tweet on Thursday, the forum said that the Chinese jabs will be available in addition to the Pfizer vaccine for children above 12 years of age.

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Meanwhile, Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar, who also heads the NCOC, said that more than half of the students of up to 18 years age have been inoculated against the COVID-19.

In a tweet, Asad Umar said students vaccinated so far exceeded 5.5 million.

The minister added that said that Gilgit Baltistan leads the way with 68 percent and Punjab is second with 62 percent.

On the other hand, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan rose to 1,278,751 on Thursday after 637 new cases surfaced in the country during the last 24 hours.

As per the NCOC data, 48,882 tests were conducted in last 24 hours while positivity ratio remained 1.30%.

According to the government's COVID-19 portal, the death toll related to coronavirus has reached to 28,575 with 9 fatalities reported during the last 24 hours.

Over the last twenty four hours, total number of recovered COVID-19 patients across the country reached 1,226,906 after another 316 virus recoveries were reported.