Zubair Qureshi
Registration of citizens aged 65 and above will start from next week and the citizens falling in this age bracket can call at 1166 and get themselves registered. At present frontline health workers are being registered for the purpose of vaccination, said Dr Nausheen Hamid, Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Health and President of the Insaf Women Wing while talking to Pakistan Observer on Thursday.
She said by Thursday 274 frontline health workers were registered as there was some hesitation on their part and they were acting on ‘wait & see’ policy, she further said.
If you go to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) or Polyclinic where vaccination centres have been set up you will see doctors and paramedics interviewing those vaccinated there and asking questions like if there are any side effects or symptoms of Covid-19, etc.
This shows how effectively negative propaganda has worked on them, said Dr Hamid. She however, assured there are 100pc results of Covid-19 vaccines and there was nothing to worry about.
Health officials, registration for the second phase of vaccination will start in March while quoting Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar who is spearheading the country’s fight against the coronavirus.
Pakistan rolled out its national vaccination drive against the novel coronavirus on February 3 after receiving 500,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine, starting with frontline health workers.
At least 27,000 frontline healthcare workers have been vaccinated across the country in one week, according to the data by National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) which is leading the national effort to contain the pandemic.
Islamabad on Thursday reported 91 new cases of Covid-19 in the last twenty-four hours taking the overall number of cases to 42,279 while the number of deaths so far have surged to 481 due to Covid-19. The number of recoveries too have jumped to 40,516, according to the NHS portal.
