Islamabad (Web Desk): Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar, who also heads the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said on Wednesday that 35 per cent of the eligible population in the country has received at least one dose of the anti-COVID-19 vaccine.
In a post on Twitter, while giving the province-wise breakdown, the minister said that 69 per cent of Islamabad's population, 51 per cent of Azad Kashmir's, 39 per cent of Gilgit Baltistan's, 37 per cent of Punjab's population, 35 per cent of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's, 32 per cent of Sindh and 12 per cent of Balochistan population had received at least one vaccine dose till today.
The NCOC chief further said that single day vaccination crossed the 1.5 million mark for the first time August 31.
"Both first dose and second dose vaccinations yesterday were highest ever with 1 million 71 thousand and 519 thousand respectively," he added.
The minister said that the federal government had set a minimum target of 40 per cent of 18 plus population being partially vaccinated by the end of August for 24 large cities.
Umar said that out of these 20 met the target. Only cities to miss the target were Hyderabad, Mardan, Nowshera and Quetta.
The NCOC head also said that vaccination targets have been set for 24 large cities by the end of September.
"These are tough targets, specially for full vaccination but achievable with a focused effort and high quality execution inshallah," the minister added.
On the other hand, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases rose to 1,163,688 on Wednesday after 3,559 new coronavirus cases surfaced in the country during the last 24 hours.
As per the NCOC data, 53,637 tests were conducted in last 24 hours while positivity ratio remained 6.63%.
According to the government's COVID-19 portal, the death toll related to coronavirus has reached to 25,889 with 101 fatalities reported during the last 24 hours.
Over the last twenty four hours, total number of recovered COVID-19 patients across the country reached 1,043,898 after another 4,140 virus recoveries were reported.