ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), the Pakistani federal government’s central body dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, has said over 13,000 health care workers had been infected with COVID-19 and more than 100 had died since the first cases of the disease were reported in Pakistan in late February last year. 

Pakistan is currently battling a second wave of the coronavirus, and has reported over 500,000 infections and 10,772 deaths since February. 

“32 new cases have been reported in HCWs [health care workers], increasing the total to 13,053 while 12,300 have recovered (640 active cases),” the NCOC said in a report this week. “113 deaths have been reported among HCWs.”

The Center said the highest number of coronavirus cases among health care workers was reported in the southern Sindh province, at 4,631. 1.

Pakistan said last month it would purchase 1.2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from China’s Sinopharm in the first official confirmation of a vaccine purchase by the South Asian country as it battles a second wave.

Dr. Faisal Sultan, the de facto health minister of Pakistan, said on Tuesday Pakistan was hopeful it would receive the first batch of the vaccine from Sinopharm in “early February.”