Zubair Qurrshi
In the backdrop of slow response by the frontline health workers and to help them overcome fears of receiving vaccine doses, Director General of Health Dr Muhammad Safdar and the District Health Officer (DHO) Dr Zaeem Zia got vaccinated on Friday.
In Islamabad so far, less than 300 frontline health workers have been administered jabs despite the fact vaccination drive started from here on Feb 3.
In a post on social media, Dr Zaeem Zia said he and the DG Dr Safdar were administered Covid-19 jabs and they were doing fine.
“We urge all our frontliners to follow your schedule and dont believe in any myths! We are good and healthy and we want you to remain safe,” he tweeted.
Later while talking to Pakistan Observer, Dr Safdar also said he was feeling “perfect” after receiving the jabs.
I urge my colleagues and fellow health workers to receive vaccine jabs so that our target might be achieved.
There are around 7,000 frontline health workers—doctors and paramedics—and the government has given 8,000 jabs to be administered to them by Feb 15 in the federal capital.
A day earlier Parliamentary Secretary for Health Dr Nausheen Hamid had admitted vaccination process goes on slow footing in the federal capital.
Our front line health workers are perhaps acting on ‘wait & see’ policy she had said. She had made it clear that there were 100% efficacy results of Covid-19 vaccine and there was nothing to worry about.
Islamabad on Friday reported 122 new cases of coronavirus and two deaths in a period of twenty-four hours taking the overall number of cases to 42,401 and deaths 483.
So far, according to official Covid-19 portal, 40,599 patients have qualified the criteria to be categorized as “recovered” cases in Islamabad.
At a press conference, the policymakers of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had shared recommendations with the media which say that according to the global guidelines some 100 million people are required to be administered Covid-19 jabs to achieve the target of herd immunity.
Dr Naushin Hamid explained that out of 200 million population, half, rather more than half were young. Therefore the government was targeting the remaining half i.e. 100 million.
