First drive-through covid centre set up in Pindi

DC says they hope it will help them achieve four more vaccination target

RAWALPINDI:

Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner Amir Aqiq Khan on Thursday inaugurated the first drive-through COVID-19 vaccination centre in the district. The facility has been set up at Allama Iqbal Park, Benazir Bhutto Road.

Talking to the media, he said that to vaccinate a maximum number of people, the district administration had adopted a policy to facilitate people who want to benefit from the national immunisation campaign without going through much hassle.

The facility will operate from 6 pm to 12 pm, providing thousands of people a safer way of getting vaccinated while observing social distancing rules, he said. “We hope it will help us achieve our vaccination target.”

Four more die

The test-to-positivity ratio in the Rawalpindi district has climbed further to 13.67 percent. Some 175 new patients got infected during the past 24 hours while the death toll during the span remained three.

One patient died at Holy Family Hospital (HFH) and another at Rawalpindi Institute of Urology and Kidney Transplant (RIUKT) each. The number of patients receiving treatment at hospitals has reached 194, among which 173 are on oxygen while 18 are on ventilators. Sources said that 1.595 million people have been inoculated in Rawalpindi, which is 48 percent of the target, is 3.2 million people.

The health authorities are ensuring 100 percent vaccination in 17 areas that are under smart lockdowns. Sources in the health department said that the vaccination centres have all vaccines except Pfizer. They said that the rising infection rate could only be stalled with vaccination and the implementation of SOPS.

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District Health Officer (DHO) Dr Ahsan Ghani has said that more than half of the population aged 18 or above have been vaccinated in the Rawalpindi so far. The district administration is also running a vaccination drive on the union council (UC) level to meet the target of immunisation of 70 percent population.

DHO said there are three million people in the district aged 18 or above and 1.5 million of them have been jabbed so far. He added Rawalpindi was among eight districts of Punjab, where the vaccination drive is underway at the UC level. Besides Rawalpindi, they include Lahore, Multan, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Gujarat, and Sargodha. Dr Ghani said vaccination is very important to control the coronavirus pandemic, and the government is taking all steps to provide it to the people. DHO urged the citizens are to get themselves inoculate at the earliest.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2021.