Covid vaccination urged for shelter homes workers
Employees of shelter homes serving homeless people and migrant workers are vulnerable to catching the novel coronavirus infection and therefore should be vaccinated on government expenses, the focal person of the free food and bedding facility said.
Prime Minister's Focal Person for Shelter Homes Naseemur Rehman has approached National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) for vaccination to as many as 94 employees of 'Panahgahs' serving thousands of underprivileged people of the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi daily.
In a letter, addressed to NCOC Chairman and Minister for Planning and Special initiatives Asad Umar, Naseem underscored the need for inclusion of field staff of the Islamabad and Rawalpindi's Panahgahs, describing them as 'among the most vulnerable group' due to their high exposure to the potential sources of coronavirus at such congregated settings. "Like the frontline health workers, they (shelter homes workers) are also exposed to the looming threat of Covid-19 and deserve inclusion in the priority list in harmony with the government urgent and equitable roll out vaccination," reads a copy of the letter.
Naseem said his office would look forward to facilitating the health officials for inoculation of the service providers including supervisors, shift manager, staff and security guards against the coronavirus.
He further said: "In the first leg, we are going to make sure that the service providers of twin cities are vaccinated and this initiative would be extended to all the Panahgahs of other cities for which provincial authorities will also be approached soon."
Currently, the frontline health workers are being vaccinated against the coronavirus under the first phase which was initiated by the government at the beginning of this month after receiving 0.5 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine from China. According to the National Vaccination Strategy, health workers will be vaccinated in the first phase, people aged 60 and above in second and those from 18 to 60 years in the third phase.
Recently, Minister for Planning Asad Umar announced the registration of 65 years old citizens and above for the national vaccination drive in days to come. So far, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) has approved China's Sinopharm, and CanSinoBio, Russia's Sputnik-V and the Oxford University-AstraZeneca.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 16th, 2021.