WHO lauds Pakistan's efforts in fighting against COVID-19

• "Pakistan has shown good response in fighting against COVID-19 as 40% of Pakistani population has been vaccinated," says Dr Mahipala.
• “I was surprised to see vaccination centres available in smallest villages," he says. 
• “Pakistan has set up 100 testing labs within duration of 3 months,” he says, adding that NCOC, health ministry have shown great response.

ISLAMABAD: The representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Dr Palitha Gunarathna Mahipala on Friday said that Pakistan has shown a good response in fighting against COVID-19 as 40% of the Pakistani population has been vaccinated, Geo News reported.

Addressing a press conference, the WHO representative said that Pakistan has an efficient vaccination system and it has always ensured the availability of 9% of the vaccine in buffer stock.

Appreciating the efforts of Pakistan against COVID-19, Dr Mahipala said: “I was surprised to see vaccination centres available in the smallest villages, and it is great to see Pakistan carrying out screening tests,” adding that “so far, 25 million coronavirus tests have been done so far, which is a huge number”.

Talking about the Omicron variant, Mahipala said that "even though it's just the flu, [people should] still be cautious".

He further said that Pakistan faced fewer hospitalisations during the fourth wave of the pandemic as the country is making the vaccine accessible to everyone. 

“Pakistan is one of the countries to carry out genomic sequencing, while it has set up 100 testing labs within the duration of three months,” said Mahipala, adding that the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) and the Ministry of Health have shown "great response."

He said that about 40% of the Pakistani population has been vaccinated, while 190 million overall — partial and complete — vaccines doses have been administered to the citizens.

“The donor agencies and the media have played a strong part in fighting against COVID-19,” he added.