Covid drive for kids to be relaunched

Authorities have decided to relaunch the coronavirus drive to administer vaccines to children aged 5 and 12 years after a lukewarm response from parents.

Sources said that ever since the federal government has authorised the coronavirus vaccine for children aged 5 through 12, several parents in Rawalpindi have refused to allow their children to be vaccinated against the deadly coronavirus.

Today (Saturday) is the last day of the campaign as health teams will go door-to-door to give vaccines to the children who have left out during the week-long drive.

The sources said that a large number of parents refused to administer the vaccines to their children studying in private and government schools.

Health department door-to-door teams also failed to achieve the target, the sources said adding that a large number of parents pretended that they had no children aged 5 and 12 at home.

According to the sources, the district administration and health department did not carry out homework prior to the start of the campaign except for holding indoor meetings and without parents, teachers' unions, elected representatives, religious scholars and civil society members on board.

In addition, no announcements were made from mosques urging parents to administer the vaccines to their children against the deadly virus.

There are 1,860 government schools and around 10,000 registered and unregistered private schools in the Rawalpindi district and a total of 1.4 million children are studying in these schools.

All Pakistan Private Schools Colleges’ Association President Irfan Muzaffar Kiyani said that the children whose parents had given ascent to schools to administer vaccines to their children were vaccinated. He said that schools did not forcefully administer vaccines to children whose parents did not give permission.

Teachers Muhammad Shafiq Bhalwalia and Basharat Iqbal Raja said that school administrations had sought written permission from parents. They said that the parents who had consented to vaccinate their children have been vaccinated.

Meanwhile, health department officials said that complete data of the drive will be compiled by Saturday.

Health Department Chief Executive Officer Dr Ansar Choudhary said that the coronavirus vaccines were very crucial and they were trying to achieve 100 per cent results.

He said that the coronavirus vaccines were safe. He said that the health department had formed teams for schools to deal with emergencies during the drive.

He said that during the six-day drive no complaints were received regarding the vaccines.

Sources at the Rawalpindi deputy commissioner’s office said that the campaign can be declared successful. They said that the shortcomings left in the campaign will be overcome during the campaign to be relaunched during the next month.

The sources said a complete awareness campaign will be run in the future and mosques will be engaged in the campaign. It has also been proposed to extend the ongoing campaign by one or two days. However, the final decision will be taken today (Saturday), the sources said.

The sources said that that around 40 per cent of parents have allowed their children to get coronavirus shots, 57 per cent have refused to do so while 3-5 per cent have not responded to the consent forms sent to them by the schools.

Sources said that without launching prior awareness campaigns, health teams visiting houses and the mobile teams faced serious difficulties in administering the vaccine to children because most parents were not psychologically prepared to administer the dose to their children.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2022.