ISLAMABAD: 778,000 people were vaccinated across the country in a single day. The announcement came from federal Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar on Wednesday.

“Yet another daily vaccination record set. Yesterday 7 lakh 78 thousand vaccinations were carried out. New record for first dose also... 5 lakh 61 thousand. New target: to Inshallah cross 1 million vaccinations in a day,” he tweeted.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan had also said on Tuesday that the country would achieve the goal of administering 1 million doses per day soon.

Dr Javed Akram, warned that the situation might further worsen in coming days and the country might be left with no option but to enforce lockdown.

“Unfortunately whenever the number of cases has started declining, a new variant of Covid-19 having high transmission rate has emerged and then positivity has started increasing again. Covid-19 is comparatively a bigger virus and it has 39,000 positions for mutations and 20,000 positions for variations. The Delta (Indian) variant has emerged after two mutations and this is why it is called double mutant virus,” he said.

He predicted that the situation would further deteriorate in coming days and the country might be left with no choice but to go for lockdown again.

“The government should expedite vaccination so that herd immunity will be achieved at the earliest. Achieving herd immunity soon will also reduce the chances of emergence of vaccine- resistant virus,” Dr Akram said.

He appealed to the masses to wear masks, observe social distancing and get vaccinated.

“All vaccines are effective and, in case of infection after vaccination, there are almost no chances of hospitalisation,” he said.