Pakistan to receive 5.6m more vaccine doses by March: NCOC
So far only 72,882 frontliners have vaccinated and the government has decided to start registering general health professionals, too, from Monday; free health coverage, a blessing for millions of people in KP
Pakistan is expected to receive another 5.6 million COVID-19 vaccine doses by the end of March, according to the National Command and Operation Centre ( NCOC) on Sunday.
As so far only 72,882 frontline healthcare workers have got themselves vaccinated in Pakistan, the government has decided to start registering general health professionals, too, from Monday (Feb.22) for the vaccination programme.
The NCOC has announced that general healthcare workers could register themselves on www.covid.gov.pk/vaccine.
Also, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan announced the second phase of COVID-19 vaccination.
In a tweet, he said: “Pak COVID-19 vaccination, next phase - now that we have expected the arrival of Oxford-astrazeneca vaccine in early March, all those 60 years of age and older are now requested to begin registration. Send CNIC as SMS to 1166. You will receive a reply with instructions on next steps.”
The federal government has dispatched 504,500 doses of vaccine to the provinces.
A National Command Centre (NCOC) statement said that 2.8 million vaccine doses were expected to arrive in Pakistan through the Covax facility by the first week of March, and a further 2.8m doses by the second week of March.
The statement added that 17.1m doses would arrive in Pakistan by the end of June. It further stated that a total of 314,500 vaccine doses have been distributed to the provinces so far.
Breakdown of doses distributed: Sindh: 121,000 doses; Punjab: 118,000 doses; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: 28,000 doses; Balochistan: 16,000 doses; Islamabad: 15,500 doses; Azad Kashmir: 11,000 doses; and Gilgit Baltistan.
The NCOC in a statement also announced the start of registration of citizens of over 60 years for the vaccine programme, with an appeal to senior citizens to text their national identity card numbers on 1166.
Covax is an international alliance that has pledged to provide free vaccines to Pakistan’s 20 per cent population.
Implementation of free healthcare facilities to millions of its people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province has emerged as a blessing for ailing poor and neglected segment of society.
Over the decades, poor in the province had been bearing the brunt of healthcare expenditures with thousands among them unable to get proper medical facilities. The initiative of Health Insaaf Card not only fulfilled their long awaited need for healthcare but also decreased the financial burden for the people who were always toiling to merely meet their household expenditure.
It became painful when the poor and downtrodden segment of society had to choose between bread and buter and healthcare. This oten used to make them decide to feed their children instead of expenditure on healthcare compelling them to borrow money for treatment on high interest rates.
The paucity of finances usually forced them to approach quacks or incompetent health practitioners that could have sometimes lead to serious complications. Provincial Minister for Finance and Health Taimur Khan Jhagra said history has been made ater KP becoming first province to provide free healthcare services to entire population.
“Health insurance has been provided to 100 per cent population in record three months as per vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan of ‘ free health services to all.”
Jhagra said besides free health coverage, anti corona vaccination has formally been started and vaccination centers in 280 hospitals were established in the province. “KP has initially received 16,000 anti corona vaccines from the Federal Government that was being administered to frontline health workers.”
He said around 2500 health workers were imparted training for anti corona vaccination and over 64,000 healthcare workers were already registered for administration of vaccines to patients. KP has become the first ever province in Pakistan to initiate free of charge treatment facilities to its people under PTI government flagship Universal Health Coverage (UHC) through Sehat Plus Cards (SPC).