AS apprehensions are being expressed that the incidence of Covid-19 infection could increase in winter, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Monday advised the provinces to expedite vaccination with a focus on students of 12-18 years’ age group.
The federating and administrative units have been asked to reach out to school administrations and parents for vaccination of students.
The Government and all of its concerned departments especially the platform of NCOC deserve full credit for managing the situation arising out of the spread of Covid-19 in a highly professional manner and as a result its impact on the normal life and economy of Pakistan is much less than many other countries of the world.
Like the policy of partial and selected lockdown, which yielded positive results for families and the overall economy, the Government moved quickly to vaccinate people against the virus promptly despite financial constraints and administrative hiccups.
An announcement of the NCOC showed that the national average of vaccination had reached 48 per cent and Punjab had become the first province to vaccinate over 50% of the population.
The data showed that Punjab’s 52% and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s 48% population had been vaccinated but Sindh with 40% and Balochistan 17% need to intensify efforts to expand the coverage to more people.
Bottlenecks should be identified and removed with the cooperation of the federal government as well as local administration besides enlisting support of the public opinion makers as there is still misconception about vaccination and its short and long term effects.
There should be no hesitation in getting school children vaccinated against the virus as many countries of the world have already vaccinated students and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States has also recommended a vaccine for young children even for the age groups of five to eleven.
Educational institutions have suffered a lot due to the Coronavirus situation and inoculation of teachers, staff and students is one of the effective ways to help them continue their operations.
