Pakistan has reported its highest single-day death toll from COVID-19, bringing the country’s total deaths in the pandemic to nearly 162,430.
Federal authorities on Sunday said 149 new deaths were recorded in 24 hours confirmed. They also confirmed over 6,000 new coronavirus cases since the day before, bringing Pakistan’s total confirmed cases to more than 756,285.
Authorities in Pakistan decided Saturday to start vaccinating people aged 50 to 59 next week.
Pakistan has largely relied on donated or imported Chinese vaccines, which had been offered only to health workers and elderly people. But those groups have not responded in overwhelming numbers to the vaccination campaign, prompting officials to offer the vaccines to a younger cohort.
Pakistan, with a population of 220 million, hopes to receive 15 million COVID-19 vaccine doses through the UN-backed COVAX programme by next month.
