Lahore/Quetta/Karachi/Peshawar (Staff Report/Agencies): The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan rose to 820,823 on Friday after 5,112 new coronavirus cases surfaced in the country during the last 24 hours.
Overall 282,445 cases were confirmed in Sindh, 301,114 in Punjab, 117,557 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 22,278 in Balochistan, 75,067 in Islamabad, 5,305 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and 17,057 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
According to the government's COVID-19 portal, the death toll related to coronavirus has reached to 17,811 with 131 fatalities reported during the last 24 hours.
Over the last twenty four hours, total number of recovered COVID-19 patients across the country reached 711,465 after another 3,272 virus recoveries were reported.
Meanwhile, National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) chief Asad Umar on Thursday stated that the citizens aged between 40 to 49 years will be vaccinated from May 3.
Moreover, Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Faisal Sultan on Thursday said that Pakistan has purchased 13 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine from three Chinese companies and expects to receive them in the next two months.
The vaccines were procured from Sinopharm, CanSinoBio and Sinovac, he told a foreign news agency.
They will supplement around 2.4 million shots from the COVAX programme for poorer nations that are expected to arrive during that period.
The SAPM said that Pakistan will be continuously procuring from all available sources across the world.
"For now, China remains the primary source for vaccines to meet our present and ongoing needs but all our options are open for effective and safe vaccines," Dr Faisal said.
It is pertinent to mention that the global coronavirus cases have reportedly surpassed 149.216 million and death toll tops 3.144 million.
