Pakistan on Sunday reported its highest single-day coronavirus spike this yr with over 6,000 new instances and about 149 deaths, because the nation struggled to hurry up its vaccination programme.

The earlier highest surge was recorded final yr on June 20 when the nation reported 6,825 infections and 153 deaths.

The nation on Sunday reported 6,127 new instances, pushing the nation’s an infection tally to 756,285. The dying toll rose to 16,243 with 149 extra fatalities.

As the brand new instances shot up, the federal government introduced that it’ll begin vaccinating individuals within the 50-59 age group from April 21.

Beforehand, the immunisation drive was restricted to individuals above 60 years.

Greater than 1.3 million individuals have been vaccinated thus far, which is only a fraction of the over 220 million inhabitants of Pakistan.

The vaccination drive within the nation started on February 2 however it stays gradual as a consequence of vaccine availability points.

Covid Vaccine World Entry (COVAX), a global initiative aimed toward equitable entry to vaccines, was to produce round 17 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine by finish of March.

Nevertheless, COVAX later instructed the federal government that the vaccine could be equipped by June 30.

Now, Pakistan is anticipating to get 15 million doses from COVAX subsequent month.

“Following my assembly with Overseas Minister @HeikoMaas, I’m glad to announce that Pakistan will obtain 15 million doses of the #COVID vaccine underneath COVAX, with a dedication for these to be delivered by Could,” Overseas Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi tweeted.

At present, the nation is generally depending on China for the COVID-19 vaccine. Some non-public corporations have imported a restricted variety of Sputnik V vaccines from Russia.