First Batch: Minister for Planning & Development Asad Umar has revealed that the first batch of the CanSino vaccine for local processing has arrived at NIH Islamabad. This will be the first that packaging, filling, and processing of any COVID-19 vaccine is being done in Pakistan. This process is intended to produce around 3 million vaccine doses per month for supply to Pakistan, in order to reduce dependency on direct imports.
The first batch of bulk cansino vaccine being processed at the national Institute of health plant set up for this purpose last month. Specially trained team working on it. Will inshallah be available for use by end of May after going thru rigorous quality control checks pic.twitter.com/kSC7tQAdrz
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) May 7, 2021
Pakistan recorded 140 deaths and 4,298 cases on Friday.
Vaccine Statistics:
Vaccine administered across Pakistan on 6th May: 170,182
Total vaccine administered till now: 3,320,304— NFRCC (@NFRCCofficial) May 7, 2021
Lockdown situation: The Minister tweeted that the government realizes how the extreme measures of restriction from the 8th to the 16th of May were going to cause inconveniences to many around the country, however he cited that these were necessary measures of caution considering the scope of the danger posed by the peak of the third wave of COVID-19.
We realize that the mobility restrictions put into place from today till the 16th are going to cause inconvenience. These measures have been necessitated by the extremely dangerous situation which has been created in the region with the spread of virulent mutations of the virus
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) May 8, 2021
Comparative analysis: Asad Umar in a series of tweets analyzed the death rates due to COVID-19 in our neighboring and other countries in the region. He posted COVID-19 infographics of India, Iran and Nepal explaining how the lack of concern in the early stages has made the situation in these countries worse. Special focus was laid on Nepal where daily cases had crossed 7000+ despite such a small population.
Even a small country like nepal saw an exponential rise in cases going up above 7,000 daily. Deaths also rose sharply. You can see the entire region is exploding with cases & deaths, in the latest covid wave. We have alhamdulillah been spared the worst by timely decisions pic.twitter.com/bbm75MzcV1
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) May 8, 2021
Backing government moves: He was adamant that the techniques and strategies being used by the current government are in line to avoid the imminent danger. He called for the Pakistani citizens to be united in this front to defeat this wave as they did in the first wave, receiving global praise.
The need for caution is clear. The danger is higher than ever and knocking at our doors. Need the country to unite in response and achieve once again what we achieved in the first wave, for which we received global praise. Inshallah we will do it again, together
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) May 8, 2021