Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar on Friday said the people with both doses of vaccine against COVID have seven times lower risk of getting the virus compared to those who were not vaccinated.

Addressing a media briefing in Islamabad along with Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan, Asad Umar said even the people with first dose have four times lower risk of the disease compared to those without vaccine.

Urging the people to get vaccinated against the pandemic, Asad who is also Chairman National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), said this was the only way to get rid of the disease.

Showing results of research work on the vaccination process in Pakistan, the minister pointed out that from February 03, 2021-when the vaccination started, to July 01, some 17.7 million received the vaccines out of which 6.2 million people had received both jabs.

During the period, he said 490,000 cases of COVID-19 were reported which counts for 0.3 percent of the whole adult population (18 years and above) that is around 125 million in the country.

He said 0.08 percent or 9,917 cases were reported among those who received first dose, whereas 0.04 percent or 5500 people with complete vaccination were infected with the virus.

This means every one out of 333 Pakistani citizens was infected, but if we see among the people who got first dose, only one out of 1250 people was reported positive and among those who were completely vaccinated, only one out of 2500 people was reported COVID positive, Asad Umar added.

He said the data showed that health experts, doctors or scientist were not giving their  opinions on the basis of their personal opinions but they had talked on facts and based on the real results of vaccinations in Pakistan.

He said even the people who were vaccinated but got infected, the seriousness of the disease was far lower compared to those who were not vaccinated.

The Indian variant, he said had worst impact on the whole region but the good news was that if you got vaccinated, the risk would minimize.

The world has praised Pakistan’s strategy to cope with the pandemic, therefore in order to maintain this positive image, all Pakistanis are urged to get vaccinated and follow SOPs against the pandemic especially during Eid holidays.

Expressing satisfaction over the rising trend of vaccinating in the country, he said for last four days the number of people receiving jabs remained over 500,000.

However he said this was not enough as the government had sufficient stock of vaccines so more people should get vaccinated.