Booster shot uptake increases as viral cases skyrocket

Until a few weeks ago, it seemed that much of Karachi, despite constant reminders from the government, could find little motivation to get an anti-coronavirus booster shot.

While the federal government had invested Rs43 billion in procuring doses for all four provinces, port-city residents who had been fully vaccinated adamantly believed that they could do without the booster jab.

Medical experts who were reviewing the situation believed that the lack of public interest in recall doses was a product of people becoming desensitised to Covid-19, and had been constantly urging the population to get jabbed immediately.

However, the instructions seemed to have landed on deaf ears. Resultantly, the city’s inoculation facilities were found unfrequented at a time when the virus was sprawling at an unprecedented rate, giving way to a sudden and uncontrollable upsurge in a matter of two months.

Now, as push comes to shove and the port city is hit with over 3,149 new Covid-19 infections overnight, bringing the positivity rate to a record high of more than 45 per cent, it appears that Karachi’s citizens have found just enough motivation to get the booster shots.

“I couldn’t see any reason to get the booster injection at first, because there was nothing alarming about coronavirus numbers between November to December. We were all too invested in our lives and had too much going on to spare a day for vaccination, but cases are now spiking like never before and everyone knows someone who’s infected with the virus, so having your immunity boosted has become absolutely necessary,” opined Mujahid Aslam, a citizen queued up for his jab at the now crowded Expo Mega Vaccination Centre.

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This change of mindset is also reflected in the statistics issued by the Directorate of Health Services, which highlight that all six districts of the Karachi division cumulatively received a total of 27,584 booster shots in the last five days: On January 16 the number stood at 2,997 booster shots administered in the city, on January 17 it was 5,456 shots, on January 18 the number climbed to 8,577 shots, while on January 19 and January 20 it was 5,443 and 5,111 respectively.

Speaking in this regard, Pakistan Infectious Diseases Society President Professor Rafiq Khanani said that it is a good sign that people are getting their booster shots. “We are seeing a record high positivity rate in the city right now, but the rate of infection could be further increased if the population does not complete its vaccination. What we are going through at the moment is a product of ignorance that was practiced during November and December, when people turned a deaf ear to booster reminders. If we are to get through this, complete vaccination is the only answer and every citizen should responsibly get jabbed for their own sake and the sake of their loved ones,” the expert opined while speaking to The Express Tribune.