150,000 health workers get vaccinated in Pakistan
PEOPLE ABOVE 65 WILL GET FREE SHOTS FROM MARCH AT GOVERNMENT FACILITIES
Vaccination of health workers aged 65 and above is picking up across Pakistan with 150,000 of them getting vaccinated by yesterday.
According to special assistant to the prime minister on health, Dr Faisal Sultan the government was considering to make vaccination 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 Sultan asked the health professionals who had been immunised 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 warned that vaccine hesitancy could lead to rise in the number of coronavirus cases.
The special assistant said the World Health Organisation (WHO) had approved the vaccines in use not only in Pakistan but nearly 35 countries.
Dr. Sultan explained that in first phase, two categories of people would be administered the vaccine — front-line health care workers and people over 65 years of age.
November target
“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,” 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.
Sindh Health Minister Dr. Azra Pechuho has warned health care workers of termination if they refuse to get themselves vaccinated against coronavirus.
The provincial minister said this while presiding over a meeting on the establishment of adult vaccination centres across the province.
“We have started the process of Covid-19 vaccination in Sindh where all health care workers are being registered for the vaccination. All those health care workers who do not take part in the process of vaccination and get themselves vaccinated would be terminated,” she said.
Pakistan yesterday reported 32 fatalities in a period of twenty-four hours. In the same period, 1,541 new cases of Covid-19 registering a total of 577,482.
With 32 deaths the country’s toll has surged to 12,804.
According to official portal of the National Health Ministry in the last 24 hours, 41,849 were conducted according to which there are 22,285 active cases in the country. In last one day 2,505 patients were also recovered taking the total number of recoveries to 542,393.