Staff Reporter Peshawar
The vaccination to citizens over 60 years of age were being vaccinated against coronavirus in the province, an official of the Health Department told media here on Saturday.
He said so far 2,075 senior citizens have been vaccinated against coronavirus besides 28,175 health workers in the province have been vaccinated against Covid-19.
He disclosed that the number of health workers receiving the second dose of vaccine was reached to 2,768 with 6,897 health workers in Peshawar, 2,517 in Abbottabad and 1,823 in Swat, 998 health workers of Mardan, 884 of Kohat, 760 of Bannu and 733 of Dera Ismail Khan have been vaccinated.
Senior citizens across the country began to receive the first dose of the vaccine at adult vaccination centres on Wednesday, after the country’s health minister announced the launch of the new phase of the campaign earlier this week.
“I knew that as soon as the vaccine comes, I must take it,” said Basharat Ali Zaidi, 88, a retired telecom engineer was among the first senior citizens to receive the vaccine.
“I spoke to my son about it, we registered online and [at the vaccination centre today] filled out the form and […] then after two or four questions about whether I had any allergies … they gave me the vaccine,” he said.
More than 300,000 people aged over 60 have registered to receive the vaccine, Health Minister Dr Faisal Sultan told.
“[The] process started today – prioritising with the oldest citizens, that is over 80, and [we] will work our way down.
The over-60 registration is around 300,000 to date but increasing every day,” he said.
