Covid-19 inoculation drive commences in Pakistan

Pakistan’s nerve centre for Covid-19 response on Wednesday simultaneously initiated the national immunization drive for the novel coronavirus across all federating units of the country.

The inaugural ceremony of the national immunization program was held at the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC). Federal Minister Asad Umar, present on the occasion, lauded the country’s frontline health workers and said they “are our real heroes. No doubt they have put their lives at risk in their fight against COVID-19 and we pay tribute to all of them."

He also thanked the government of China and the provincial and federal authorities for their efforts to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.

“The simultaneous inaugural ceremony is the centre of national effort highlighting the unified collaboration of the provinces and the federal government collectively fighting the contagion.”

Also present at the ceremony were National Coordinator NCOC Lieutenant General Hamood Uz Zaman Khan, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhary, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Faisal Sultan and SAPM on Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar. China’s Commercial Minister Counsellor China Xie Guoxiang was the chief guest on the occasion.

The first consignment of the 500,000 Covid-19 doses produced by China’s Sinopharm reached the federal capital on February 1, which were later distributed to all provinces.

Pakistan also expects some 6 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine in the first quarter of this year, while 11 million more shots will reach the country by June

For the first phase of vaccination drive, 189 vaccination centres have been set up in Punjab, 14 in Sindh, 280 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 44 in Balochistan and 14 in Islamabad, 25 in Azad Kashmir (AJK) and 16 in (G-B).

The entire vaccination process would take place with the National Immunization Management System with minimal human intervention.

Read more: Vaccination launched with jab to a PIMS doctor

PHOTO: EXPRESS

Sindh

As the Covid-19 inoculation drive started in Sindh, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah thanked the Chinese government for providing the vaccine doses to Pakistan.

CM Murad said that Sindh received 83,000 doses which would be administered to front-line health care workers only. “There are 320,000 health workers in Sindh out of which 180,000 are front-line health workers,” CM Murad said.

He added that in the first phase, the Sindh government was commencing the vaccination campaign in three cities which included Karachi, Hyderabad and Shaheed Benazirabad as the number of Covid-19 cases were higher in these three cities.

Punjab

In Punjab, Chief Minister Usman Buzdar inaugurated the Covid-19 inoculation drive in the province.

“The government will provide free vaccine to the citizens,” he said. “In the first phase, front line health workers will be vaccinated while in the second phase, Covid-19 vaccine will be administered to senior citizens along with the [remaining] health care workers.

Balochistan

Inaugurating the coronavirus vaccine campaign in Quetta, Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal said that in the first phase, the vaccine would be administered to health care workers.

“There are more than 8,000 health workers in Balochistan, while in the second phase; people over the age of 65 will be vaccinated," he added.

PHOTO: EXPRESS

Balochistan CM Jam Kamal addresses the inauguration ceremony of the Covid-19 vaccination drive.PHOTO: Ghalib Nihad

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

According to K-P’s special secretary, at least 50 district heads in the major hospitals of the province and 30 medical personnel would be vaccinated in hospitals on daily basis.

“Online registration is being started in the province,” he said. “On 1166, medical staff can get themselves registered the vaccine.”

He added that vaccination against coronavirus has been started in Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) and the provincial health department would also procure [more] vaccine by March.

A dose of the Covid-19 vaccine is administered to a health worker in Peshawar. Photo: Sirajuddin