Islamabad, May 27 (IANS): Pakistan on Thursday started Covid-19 vaccine registration for people over 19 years of age who have computerised national identity cards (CNIC).

A senior official of the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) told Dawn news that there were 100 million people over the age of 18 years in the country, and "we are targeting 70 million for vaccination to achieve herd immunity".

"The number of people over 50 years of age is 27 million, around 12 million fall in the age bracket of 40 to 50 years while 22 million people are in the age group of 30 to 40 years," the NHS ministry official said.

The development comes four days after the country allowed vaccination of citizens aged 30 and above against Covid-19.

Around 39 million people will benefit from this decision and almost 100 per cent of the population that can be vaccinated has become eligible for registration.

Since the onset of the pandemic last year, Pakistan has reported of 908,576 Covid cases, with 827,843 recoveries and 20,465 fatalities.