Slow booster data update irks expatriates

Expatriates are complaining about the slow speed of booster dose data update by the health department which is causing them issues in resuming work abroad.

An expatriate, Muhammad Riaz, said that he returned home from Saudi Arabia in April this year and got inoculated with two shots of Sinopharm vaccine within a month. “Later on, the policies changed and booster dose became a requirement for joining work in the foreign countries. I got jabbed in Quaid-i-Azam Academy 15 days ago to fulfil this obligation,” he explained.

He lamented that the data was not updated by the health department even after 10 days of vaccination while he was supposed to urgently submit inoculation documents to the Saudi Health ministry.

“This laxity of government institutions would have cost me my job,” he protested, adding that he sent his son to Qauid-i-Azam Academy to get his details updated.

Read 93% Covid patients unvaccinated in K-P

Another man, Haji Bashir, complained that he too is a victim of poor treatment of the health department.“I reached the vaccination centre with my passport after payment for the booster shot with NBP but I was made to go back to get an affidavit,” Bashir stated.

“Nowhere in the awareness material did they mention about any affidavit requirement for a booster shot,” he pointed out. When contacted, Deputy District Health Officer and focal person for Covid vaccination Dr Asif Mahmood confirmed that initially there were some issues.

“Booster doses became available from Sept 1 but the software did not have the ability to register it,” he added.

He claimed that now 95% record of expatriates, who received these shots, has been updated.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2021.