Sindh

Sindh to hire more vaccinators

Chief secretary directs health department to ensure every child is vaccinated

Our Correspondent October 29, 2020

Vaccinators wear protective masks as they get their temperature checked, during an anti-polio campaign, in a low-income neighborhood as the spread of the coronavirus disease continues, in Karachi. PHOTO: REUTERS

The Sindh government has decided to recruit more vaccinators to increase the province's immunisation coverage to 100 per cent.

The decision was taken in a meeting headed by Sindh Chief Secretary Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah on Wednesday.

Officials from the health department and the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) informed the participants that as many as 3.5 million children under the age of two years were being administered vaccines by 17,000 lady health workers and 3,918 vaccinators across the province.

Shah directed the health department to increase immunisation coverage to 100 per cent, ordering the recruitment of 3,723 more vaccinators to this end.

It was further decided that children would be administered vaccines in hospitals round the clock, while the salaries of vaccinators in Sindh would be made equal to those in other provinces. Furthermore, special mobile vans will be used to vaccinate children in slum areas during evening hours.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29^th, 2020.