*Karachi – Federal Minister for Planning, Development, Reforms and SpecialInitiatives Asad Umar has said that the procurement of COVID-19 vaccinedoses will take some time as the government initiated talks with China,local media reported on Tuesday.*
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Umar said that the governmentis making efforts to procure the coronavirus vaccine and talks in thisregard have commenced with China. However, he said that the completion ofthe procurement process of COVID-19 vaccines will take some time.
“Vaccines for frontline workers will arrive soon in Pakistan,” he mentioned.
The minister said that the federal government had been recommended toimplement strict curbs amid the recent situation of the pandemic instead ofimposing smart lockdown. He maintained that statistics have proven that thepolicies implemented by the government to curb the coronavirus spread havebeen successful.
“When the second wave of the virus took over, we immediately identified thesectors that contributed most to the spread: restaurants, wedding halls andschools,” the minister said.
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“We took the decision to close these three sectors and the results are infront of you.”
Umar pointed out that since January 7, the number of COVID patients in thehospitals has gone down as compared to the first week of the second wavestarting November 30 when the number of cases across Pakistan were rapidlyincreasing.
He said the reason why the cases declined is due to government’s quickresponse and timely measures to curb the spread of virus.
