ICCI to get vaccination centre

Facility to be introduced at main markets, malls for rapid inoculation

ISLAMABAD/RAWALPINDI:

The Islamabad District Health Office would set up a Covid-19 vaccination centre in collaboration with the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) at the latter’s premises for the vaccination of business community and their employees as increased vaccination would help in lifting the restrictions on traders and facilitate better growth of business activities.

This was said by District Health Officer (DHO) Dr Zaeem Zia during his visit to ICCI on Tuesday. He discussed the requirements and mechanism of establishing a vaccination centre at ICCI.

Dr Zia said that DHO Islamabad was approaching other stakeholders to expedite the vaccination of more citizens of the capital in order to minimise the spread of Covid-19 that would help in opening all businesses as well.

He maintained that 30 per cent of the population of Islamabad has been vaccinated so far while the target was to vaccinate 70 to 80 per cent of the population to develop herd immunity and get rid of the need for restrictions and lockdowns.

He added that the vaccination drive has brought down the positivity rate in Islamabad from 19 per cent to 1.6 per cent, making it the only capital in the world with minimum positive cases.

The DHO said that vaccinated people were least likely to transmit virus to others, therefore, maximum people should opt for vaccination to control the spread of coronavirus. He assured that ICCI proposal for increasing the business timings would be given due consideration.

He nominated Additional DHO Dr Fawad Khalid Khan as focal person to work with ICCI for setting up a vaccination centre at its premises.

ICCI President Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan assured full support in setting up the vaccination centre. He proposed that DHO in collaboration with ICCI should also open vaccination centres in main markets, Centaurus and Giga Mall as a large number of people visit these business areas on a daily basis, therefore, it would help in rapid increase in vaccination of people.

He further said that ICCI has been making efforts to remove all restrictions on businesses to normalise business activities. He maintained that ICCI would coordinate with market associations and industries to invite members of the business community and their employees for vaccination.

Khan added that as the vaccination of people was increasing in Islamabad, therefore, business timings should be extended to midnight so that the business community could recover the losses suffered due to restrictions and lockdowns.

Former president ICCI Ejaz Abbasi, Saif ur Rehman Khan, Abdul Rehman Siddiqui, Khalid Chaudhry, Shaukat Hayat, Raja Abdul Majeed, Mian Arif Hussain and others also spoke at the occasion and stressed for increasing the timings for businesses in order to revive commercial activities.

Meanwhile in Rawalpindi, the District Health Authority (DHA) in collaboration with departments concerned has quarantined 1,187 suspected Covid-19 patients in the district.

According to the data shared by the DHA on Tuesday, the total number of positive cases reached 26,295 with 24,288 from Rawalpindi and 2,007 from other districts after the addition of 39 more cases during the last 24 hours.

The report said that 24,762 patients were discharged after making a recovery while three lost people lost their lives on Tuesday.

Presently, 96 confirmed patients were admitted to various facilities with 22 at Holy Family Hospital, 14 at Benazir Bhutto Hospital, 34 at Institute of Urology, 22 at Fauji Foundation Hospital, three at Bilal Hospital and one at Hearts International Hospital," the health authority report added.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2021.