Vaccine registration for people above 50 to start from March 30: Asad Umar

Govt earlier announced that 7 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine will be bought from China in the coming days

The inoculation drive to vaccinate those aged 50 and above against Covid-19 will begin on March 30, National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) chief Asad Umar announced on Friday.

Registration of those who are 50 plus for covid vaccination will be opened on march 30th. Registration of those who are 60 and older has already been open. Encourage everybody who is 50 plus to register when the registration is opened for them on 30th.

— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) March 26, 2021

The minister also asked the people to encourage those over 50 to register for the inoculation drive and reminded the masses that the drive is ongoing for those who are 60 years or older. 

The country's vaccination drive began with the frontline healthcare workers earlier in February. On March 10, the second phase was launched for people over 60. 

The government earlier announced that seven million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine will be bought from China in the coming days.

Pakistan is also endeavouring to procure vaccines from other sources, including the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) – a global initiative for equitable access to the vaccines led by Unicef, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and others.

Last year, Gavi had announced to provide 17 million doses to Pakistan in March. However, as the pandemic escalated worldwide, Europe’s own production could not meet the requirement of its own population.

As a result, pressure for supplies mounted on Indian manufacturers. This forced India to stop export to the Asian countries. Consequently, the vaccine doses, which were to be received by Pakistan from India has been delayed till June.

Umar had said that out of the 7 million doses to be received by April, 4 million would be finished products and ready to use, while 3 million doses would be in unpacked form. He added that a Chinese delegation would visit Pakistan to assist in the packaging of the vaccine.

The 60,000 single-dose CanSino vaccine are also being purchased by Pakistan, according to the minister. It may be recalled that trials of CanSino vaccine were carried out in Pakistan.