Door-to-door vaccination in K-P to begin in Feb & March
PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE
A door-to-door vaccination campaign in the mountainous districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) will be launched from March while in the rest of the districts it would start from February 1.
This was revealed during a high level meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Shehzad Khan Bangash via video link.
The agenda of the meeting was vaccination and Omicron variant. Secretary Health, Director General Health, Director Performance Management and Reforms Unit and Deputy Commissioners of all the districts attended the meeting.
The Chief Secretary, while issuing instructions to the participants of the meeting, said that vaccination is essential for the prevention of Omicron virus and full measures should be taken in this regard.
He said that the orders issued by the NCOC must be taken under end to end compliance. On the occasion, the health secretary informed the participants that steps are being taken to achieve the targets of vaccination.
The participants were informed that 40.14 per cent people have been vaccinated while the health department, all district administrations and other concerned departments have intensified the vaccination campaign to achieve the vaccination targets.
On the occasion, the director general of health department said that a total of 74,162 people have been vaccinated in the last 24 hours, of which 34,463 people have been given first dose and 39,699 people have been given second dose of vaccine. Dr Shehzad Khan Bangash issued directions to all officers to launch an awareness campaign to increase the rate of vaccination.
Read Covid-19 vaccination drive to start on Feb 1
During the briefing, the Health Secretary informed the meeting that a door-to-door vaccination campaign is being launched from February 1 to February 14, after which a vaccination campaign will be launched in the upper areas in March to achieve the vaccination targets.
He also said that hospitals have adequate beds, oxygen and other facilities for omicron patients. The chief secretary while issuing instructions said that all the available resources should be utilized to achieve the objectives of the vaccination drive and to run awareness campaigns on precautions like masks, sanitizers and social distancing among the people.
He further directed that smart lockdown should be imposed in the areas or institutions where cases reported and movement in the affected areas should be banned.
He said that in the current situation, clerics, general public, TMA of all districts and people including all governmental and non-governmental organizations should join hands with the government to make the fight against this pandemic a success.
He maintained that everyone must support the government in conducting awareness campaigns to ensure implementation of the SOPs.
Meanwhile, the DG health also informed the meeting that 12,493 tests have been done in the last 24 hours in which 1,317 persons or 10.5 per cent have tested positive and three Covid patients died, 197 people have been admitted in the Critical Care unit while 3,843 people will be treated in hospitals.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 30th, 2022.