Covid vaccination starts in K-P on Wednesday

Health workers will be the first to receive jabs; 280 centres set up across province

PESHAWAR:

Corona vaccination will start in the K-P from Wednesday which will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Mahmood Khan. In the first phase frontline workers including doctors and paramedical staff will be vaccinated.

Addressing a press conference here Sunday, Health and Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra said that the Corona vaccine will reach Pakistan on Monday and like the rest of the country its vaccination will start on Wednesday.

“Around 280 vaccination centers have been established for it and around 2,584 staffers have been trained for the purpose,” he informed reporters, adding that the highest number of vaccination centers were being established in the K-P while there were only 189 centres in Punjab, 14 in Sindh and 44 in Balochistan.

“In the first phase 80,000 medics will be vaccinated. The vaccination drive will be carried out in eight divisional headquarters including Peshawar, Nowshera, Abbotabad, Mardan, Bannu, DI Khan, Swat and other districts,” the minister said, adding that in the first phase two doses will be administered.

“Priority will be given to those medics whose hospitals are receiving the highest number of Covid-19 patients. Every center will receive 30 to 35 vaccines and cold storage facility. Security will also be provided,” said Jhagra, adding that registered private companies will be encouraged to import vaccines.

“After the frontline workers vaccination will be started for the general public,” he said.

Read: PAF plane leaves for China to bring Covid-19 vaccine

On the other hand, Health Department has requested the police to provide security during the transportation of the vaccine from Islamabad to K-P. In a letter obtained by The Express Tribune the Health Department asked the capital city police to provide security not only in the transportation phase but also during the storage phase due to the uncertain situation and threats.

Doctors in the province showed a mixed reaction on the development.

“It is a good thing to vaccinate health workers but let’s see the type of vaccine and its performance first. I think the vaccine was provided to Pakistan in the past for trials and now China has donated it free of cost. We will wait for more details to surface before we can comment on the matter,” said a senior doctor while talking to The Express Tribune.

Other doctors welcomed the planned vaccination for medics, saying it will safeguard them against the virus which had claimed the lives of dozens of health workers across the province. Young Doctors Association president Dr.Rizwan Kundi appreciated the provincial government announcement that it will vaccinate frontline health workers first.

He added that it’s a good step of the government as the health workers including doctors, paramedics and nurses were on the frontline during the Covid-19 pandemic. He said that during the Covid-19’s first and second wave, around 43 doctors, six nurses, and seven paramedical staff embraced martyrdom in K-P while leading from the front to save the patients from the deadly virus.

He said that the government should also provide compensation to the families of doctors, nurses and paramedics who laid down their lives fighting to save those of others.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1^st, 2021.