KARACHI: 19, JANUARY, 2021: Sindh government on Tuesday has planned to establish emergency fund to buy COVID-19 vaccine and Rs 1.5 billion will be initially allocated for the procurement of vaccine this year. 

According to details, the Sindh government has contacted AstraZeneca, British manufacturer, and China’s Sinopharm to get the vaccine. 

In her statement, Sindh Health Minister Azra Pechuho said that the centre is delaying to procure the vaccine adding that the provincial government is making an online portal for persons above 60. 

As much as 175,000 frontline workers will be vaccinated in phase one in the province, she added. 

"Instead of waiting for the Covid-19 vaccine to be acquired by the federal government, we have decided to establish an emergency fund of Rs1.5 billion initially and procure vaccine for our frontline workers within a few weeks' time. So far, we have 80,000 registered frontline workers but this can go up to 125,000 in entire Sindh who are directly dealing with the Covid-19 patients," she said.

The number of coronavirus infections has jumped to 523,011 on Tuesday after more cases were reported in different parts of the country.

According to the national database, 1,800 persons tested positive for the deadly virus in 24 hours whereas the total count of active cases increased up to 35,485.

As per sources, cases in Sindh climbed to 236,530 the highest number so far in the country, while the confirmed infections tally in Punjab stood at 150,316, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cases jumped to 63,825, in Balochistan 18,622 cases reported, Islamabad Capital Territory covid-19 cases reached 40,177, Gilgit-Baltistan tally up to 4,887 while 8,654 cases were reported in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

In addition, the country has recorded 11,055 deaths so far, after 58 fatalities were reported over the last 24 hours.

As per official data, Punjab recorded 4,460 deaths, a highest number as compared to any other province while 3,813 in Sindh, 1,791 deaths were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 101 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 190 in Balochistan, Islamabad Capital Territory has reported 457 deaths and AJK recorded 243 deaths.

According to the NCOC, Pakistan has so far carried out 7,442,084 corona tests and 36,513 in last 24 hours and 476,471 patients have recovered. 

Reportedly, 214,231 patients have been recovered in Sindh, 134,842 in Punjab, 58,348 in KP, 18,110 in Balochistan, 38,046 in Islamabad Capital Territory, 4,756 in Gilgit-Baltistan while in AJK 8,138 patients have been completely recovered across Pakistan whereas 2,341 patients are in a critical condition across the country. (04)