Covid-19 vaccination: ‘Massive door-to-door drive launched to administer 35m jabs’

ISLAMABAD: The government of Pakistan, Tuesday, announced launching a massive door-to-door Covid-19 vaccination drive to administer over 35 million vaccination jabs to contain the spread of the fifth wave of the virus.

This was revealed by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) Chairman, Asad Umar, while addressing a press conference along with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan (SAPM), here at the NCOC head office.

Umar, who is also Federal Minister for Planning and Development, said that under the first phase of the campaign, 55,000 mobile teams will vaccinate people at their homes for the next two months.

Sharing data about vaccination so far, the minister said 80 million people have been fully vaccinated, while 10 million others have received a single dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

He said 2.6 million people also received the booster dose.

“It has been noticed during the current fifth wave of Covid-19 that the people in the areas with high vaccination rates have minor symptoms of the disease,” Umar said.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Sultan urged the people to welcome the mobile vaccination teams at homes, and get vaccinated. He said the fully vaccinated people are also recommended to have booster dose six months after their vaccination. He said like the first two doses, the booster dose is also completely free.

He urged people to get their Covid-19 booster shots, if six months had passed since they got their second vaccination dose.

“Scientific data has shown that people need an additional dose of the vaccine despite being fully vaccinated for protection against Covid-19, if six months and over have passed,” Dr Sultan said, while addressing a meeting of the NCOC in Islamabad.

He said that earlier, the NCOC was only asking people to get the booster dose, but now it is recommending it again based on scientific evidence. The SAPM said that the additional dose is being administered for free so people should benefit from it as much as possible.

“The biggest advantage of getting a booster shot will be that we can stay safe from the Omicron variant,” Dr Sultan said, adding that the only way to get rid of the restrictions that people are facing for the last two years is vaccination against Covid-19.

Dr Sultan urged the people who have not been vaccinated at all, due to any reason, to make sure that they get inoculated.

“Anyone who hasn’t gotten vaccinated yet due to their inattention or laziness, they still have a chance to get vaccinated now,” he said.

“These vaccines are protecting against the spread of this disease, hazards and side effects of the disease, hospitalisation and other complications.”

The SAPM requested the public not to turn away vaccination teams, if they reach their doorstep.

Meanwhile, Pakistan on Tuesday reported below 10 percent Covid-19 positivity, which is the lowest of the past two weeks, the NCOC data showed.

However, the country’s active cases tally continued going up as it was counted at 105,675.

As per the statistics issued by the NCOC, the country’s daily case count, too, witnessed a dip in the last 24 hours as only 5,327 out of 55,202 tests conducted countrywide came back positive.

With this decline, Pakistan’s Covid-19 positivity rate dropped to 9.65 percent, the country on January 19 recorded the Covid-19 positivity rate at 9.48 percent.

However, the new infections placed Pakistan’s confirmed case count at 1,430,366, while the recoveries stand at 1,295,390.

Meanwhile, 32 more people succumbed to coronavirus, which is the highest number of Covid-19 deaths since October 6, 2021, when the country reported 46 casualties.

Despite the decline in the daily case count and positivity rate, the death toll seems to be picking up, pushing the nationwide death toll to 29,301.

Sindh with 543,170 Covid-19 cases is top among all the federating units, of which, 1,477 cases were registered in the past 24 hours, followed by Punjab with 480,421 cases, of which, 1,894 were recorded in the past 24 hours, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 194,887 cases, of which, 721 were detected in the past 24 hours, the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) with 128,429 cases, of which, 932 were reported in the past 24 hours, the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) with 38,339 cases, of which, 224 were detected on Monday, Balochistan with 34,417 cases, of which, 27 were recorded on Monday, and Gilgit Baltistan with 10,703 cases, of which, 52 were detected in the past 24 hours.

On account of Covid-19 deaths, Punjab with 13,176 deaths is top among all the federating units, of which, 16 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours, followed by Sindh with 7,829 deaths, of which, eight deaths were registered in the past 24 hours, KPK with 6,002 deaths, of which, four deaths were reported in the past 24 hours, Islamabad with 980 deaths, the AJK with 358 deaths, of which, three deaths were reported on Monday, Balochistan with 368 deaths, of which, one death was reported on Monday, and GB with 188 deaths is on the bottom of the chart.

The NCOC has extended coronavirus curbs in the country from January 31 till February 15, as thousands continue to contract the infection amid a spread in the Omicron variant.

The forum had imposed Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) on January 19, which were to be reviewed on January 27 in light of the Covid-19 situation in the country. The restrictions for the wedding sector were already imposed till February 15.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022