Pakistan has achieved the target of vaccinating 70 million people against the COVID-19 by the end of the year 2021, Chairman of the country's National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) Asad Umar announced on Twitter Friday.

The chairman of the NCOC, which leads the nation's campaign against COVID-19, appreciated the NCOC team and the health teams from the central government and provinces for their hardworking efforts to achieve the tough goal.

Umar said that the central government procured vaccines and provided them free of cost to all citizens, adding that 46 percent of the country's total eligible population have been fully vaccinated.

In early February this year, Pakistan kicked off its nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign after receiving a batch of China-donated vaccines.

Pakistan's overall tally of the infected people reached 1,295,376 across the country on Thursday, including 1,256,337 recoveries and 28,927 deaths, according to the NCOC.