Pakistan is at grave risk of a major COVID crisis, a world’s best-known COVID expert has said. US-based Dr. Faheem Younus has said that Pakistan is at risk because only one percent of the total population is vaccinated; while almost 200 million people are susceptible. He says that vaccine hesitancy in Pakistan is around 50 percent which means the country would not be able to develop herd immunity.
He believes, “In epidemiological terms, the nation is a sitting duck in a data fog.” He says it is not a prediction but a concern. He presents his arguments in the light of facts and figures. He says variant B.1.1.7 which is also called the UK variant reached Pakistan in January. This type of coronavirus spreads faster and is more likely to cause deaths.
Why Pakistan is at Risk
Vaccinations <1%
Vaccine hesitancy ~50%Genome sequencing <0.1%
B.1.1.7 variant in PK since JanSusceptible population ~200 M
In epidemiological terms, the nation’s a sitting duck in a data fog
It’s NOT a prediction; It’s a concern pic.twitter.com/Xfo8bQvMVI
— Faheem Younus, MD (@FaheemYounus) May 3, 2021
Pakistan-born Doctor Younus is an award-winning clinician and a certified physician executive (CPE) who is Chief of Infectious Diseases at the University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health. He has 258k followers on Twitter and he posts COVID-related updates for many countries.
Read more: Pakistan can get the dangerous Indian COVID situation
یہ بحث چھوڑیں کہ کون سی ویکسین سب سے اچھی ہے کیونکہ اسکا کوئ آسان جواب نہیں۔
یہ بات سمجھیں کہ سبھی ویکسینز محفوظ ہیں۔ جو ملے وہ لگوا لیں۔ یہی طریقہ ہے وباء کو کچلنے کا-
آپ کا انقباض کرونا کو مزید پھیلنے کا موقع دیگا-
پہلا قدم اٹھائیں- اونٹ کا گھٹنا باندھیں پھر توکل اللہ کریں-
— Faheem Younus, MD (@FaheemYounus) May 2, 2021
According to the latest data provided by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 4,213 people tested positive for COVID-19 when 45,954 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours across the country.
The positivity rate of coronavirus cases stands at 9.16% with total cases at 834,146.
Asad Umar said 140,000 people were vaccinated last day and the government wanted to increase the numbers for vaccination to 300,000 people per day.
If compared with the neighboring country, China carried out about 11.6 million vaccinations against COVID-19 in one day, bringing the total number administered to 270 million.
Minister for Health & Population Welfare, Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho said, “Yesterday 13 samples underwent genomic study at the Agha Khan University Hospital, of these 10 were of the UK variant, and 2 were of the [South] Africa and Brazil variants.”
Read more: Is Indian COVID crisis spilling into Pakistan?
In order to avoid the risk, Pakistan will have to speed up its vaccination process.