SAPM says vaccine supply will improve after June

The government has ruled out a nationwide shortage of coronavirus vaccine, saying that the situation at some vaccination centers is temporary and would be resolved in a few days.

Dawn reported that two vaccination centers were closed in Lahore due to shortage of supplies, and the remaining across the province have only a day’s stock left.

According to the The News, as the stock of Chinese and European vaccines ran out, the federal government dispatched 150,000 emergency doses to Punjab and Sindh while asking China and COVAX for more jabs.

On Wednesday, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr. Faisal Sultan held a press conference in Islamabad, wherein he said that some “busy” vaccination centers had been reporting the issue, but officials were working to resolve the problem, and it is expected to improve after June 20.

Citing the variation in visitors at different vaccination centers, the SAPM said that busy centers needed more jabs. However, he added, officials were coordinating with relevant authorities to overcome shortage.

He urged the public to cooperate with the authorities. “So this process will continue and it will improve after June as we get more vaccines,” Dawn cited the SAPM as saying.

According to the National Command and Operation Center, as of Wednesday, 369,274 citizens have been vaccinated against the highly-contagious virus while 12,067,171 doses have been administered across the country.

The government’s portal keeping track of the cases reported on Wednesday that Statistics the authorities conducted 42,113 coronavirus tests, out of which 1,038 came out positive, registering a positivity rate of 2.46 percent. During this period, 46 people died of coronavirus-related complications across the country.

It is worth mentioning here that as the positivity rate decreases and more citizens are vaccinated, the government is slowly easing the restrictions placed to curb growing infections during the third wave of the pandemic.