Zubair Qureshi Islamabad
Vaccination of health workers aged 65 and above is underway in the country across the country and by Friday around 150,000 health workers had been vaccinated.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health, Dr Faisal Sultan while talking to Pakistan Observer on Friday said the vaccination should be mandatory for all the front-line workers to break the chain of infection as he himself got the first dose of vaccine a couple of days ago.
Dr Faisal asked the health professionals who had been immunized the COVID-19 vaccine to share their experience with their colleagues so that those who were a bit hesitant to be convinced and inoculated against the deadly virus.
He alarmed that vaccine hesitancy could lead to rise in the number of coronavirus cases. The special assistant said the World Health Organization (WHO) had also approved the vaccines in use not only in Pakistan but nearly 35 countries.
SAPM explained that in first phase, two categories of people would be administered the vaccine – front-line healthcare workers and people over 65 years of age.
“We have set a target to achieve herd immunity by vaccinating 70 million people by the end of the current year, however, we are hopeful of achieving the target by November, this year” he added.
Everyone above the age of 65 would be able to get COVID-19 vaccine from March for free at governmental facilities, he said.
