ISLAMABAD: COVID-19 vaccines helped reduce the severity of disease and hospitalization rates among those infected with the virus in Pakistan, official data gathered by Arab News this week has revealed, with over 85 percent coronavirus patients admitted in hospitals across the country found to be unvaccinated.
Almost 60 million people out of Pakistan’s 125.85 million eligible individuals over 18 years of age have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine since February this year. On Friday, fully vaccinated people constituted 14.7 percent of the target population as all federating units said they were ramping up efforts to boost the daily vaccination rate by launching door-to-door campaigns and imposing restrictions on unvaccinated people using public transportation, buying fuel at petrol stations and availing other essential services.
The vaccines available in Pakistan include Pfizer, Moderna, Sputnik, AstraZeneca, SinoVac, SinoPharm and CanSino.
According to official data collected by Arab News from all four provinces and the capital, Islamabad, vaccines are also protecting partially vaccinated people from contracting the disease as well as reducing the severity of illness in case of hospitalization.
“The coronavirus vaccine is helping us, to a great extent, to prevent the disease,” Dr. Yasmeen Rashid, the health minister of Pakistan’s largest province, Punjab, told Arab News. “The severity of illness is significantly reduced in case a vaccinated person gets infected.”
“PUNJAB”
Rashid said 36 out of 37 coronavirus patients on ventilators at the province’s public hospitals were found to be unvaccinated.
The province has so far administered at least one vaccine dose to 32.7 million individuals out of an eligible population of 66.8 million.
According to official data from the provincial health department, at least 88 percent coronavirus patients admitted to hospitals in Punjab were unvaccinated while the remaining five percent were fully vaccinated and seven percent partially vaccinated with a single dose,
The data showed that 95 percent of patients admitted to the intensive care units of different hospitals in Punjab were unvaccinated while only five percent were fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
“KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA”
In the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, official data collected from the provincial health directorate showed that 87 percent of the currently admitted coronavirus patients were unvaccinated while nine percent were partially vaccinated and four percent fully vaccinated.
“Among all reported confirmed cases in KP, at least 12 percent individuals are fully vaccinated, eleven percent are partially vaccinated, and the remaining 77 percent are unvaccinated,” Rizwan Malik, a spokesperson for the KP health department, told Arab News.
The province had administered a single dose to at least 33.2 percent individuals and fully vaccinated some 11.9 percent people until Wednesday, out of its total eligible population of 19.2 million.
“BALOCHISTAN”
In Balochistan, official data revealed at least 98 percent COVID-19 patients admitted in different hospitals were unvaccinated while the remaining two percent were either partially or fully vaccinated.
The province has so far administered over one million doses — four percent fully vaccinated and 12 percent partially vaccinated — to its eligible population of 6.5 million.
“The vaccination has definitely helped curb coronavirus infections in the province,” Aziz Jamali, secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare in Balochistan, told Arab News. “Timely vaccination and better management [of the immunization campaign] can further increase the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.”
Jamali said the overall data for those fully or partially vaccinated individuals who had contracted COVID-19 was not available for the province.
“SINDH”
In Sindh, about 90 percent of COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals were unvaccinated while the remaining ten percent were either partially or fully vaccinated.
“The vaccines are very much effective in preventing COVID-19, hospitalization and severity [of the illness],” Dr. Akram Sultan, a director of health in Sindh, told Arab News. “These vaccines are among the important tools to decrease mortality and morbidity in the cases of coronavirus infections.”
The province has vaccinated 34.16 percent of its total 27.5 million eligible population. Among them, 9.4 million have only received a first dose while 2.9 million were fully vaccinated, according to official data compiled until Thursday.
“ISLAMABAD CAPITAL TERRITORY”
In Islamabad Capital Territory, data showed about 95 percent of COVID-19 patients in different hospitals were unvaccinated while the remaining five percent were either partially or fully vaccinated.
“The vaccination and prevention, like smart lockdowns, have helped overcome the spread of the coronavirus and reduce daily positivity rate from over ten percent to five percent,” Dr. Hasan Orooj, director general health services in Islamabad, told Arab News.
Data shows the Islamabad district administration had administered at least a single COVID-19 vaccine dose to 1.5 million individuals, which is the total eligible population of the area.
“This doesn’t mean we have vaccinated hundred percent eligible individuals in Islamabad,” Orooj said. “People from Rawalpindi and other cities have also got jabs in Islamabad.”
– Additional reporting by Naimat Khan in Karachi, Rehmat Mehsud in Peshawar and Saadullah Akhter in Quetta