Pakistan to begin Covid vaccine drive next week

ISLAMABAD – Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar said Wednesday that the campaign to administer Covid-19 vaccine will begin next week as hundreds of vaccination centres are set up across the country. 

“The system for vaccination is in place. Hundreds of vaccination centres in the country will be administering covid vaccine. Inshallah the vaccination of front line health workers will start next week,” Asad Umar said in a tweet late Wednesday.

Following detailed discussion with all stakeholders, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Wednesday unanimously decided reopening of the remaining educational institutions particularly primary, middle and universities from February 1. 

The forum decided that the primary, and middle schools and the universities across the country would reopen from 1st February with the students of the educational institutions in four major cities of Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore and Peshawar would attend classes in 50 percent strength on alternate basis.

The NCOC morning session was chaired by Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar with National Coordinator NCOC Lieutenant General Hamood Uz Zaman Khan.

Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mehmood also attended the meeting whereas the provincial health minister of Sindh and chief secretaries of all federating units joined the meeting through video link.

All educational institutions will reopen from Feb 1 with 50pc class attendance 

The forum had decided to reopen education sector after a hiatus with strict recommendations of staggered classes for three days a week in the urban centers with higher positivity. However, the universities would reopen usually as per the schedule with lower population density.

The forum was informed that globally the disease trend had boomed after complete opening of education sector whereas the segregated approach would help in reducing the contagion re-surge risk.

The forum was also informed that vaccination centres had been established all across the country whereas staff trainings and other arrangements were completed to kick start the inoculation of COVID-19 vaccine.

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) also revealed the 8-step vaccination strategy against Covid-19 involving registration and vaccination once the vaccine becomes available in the country.

The strategy was developed after consultations with all the stake-holders including the provinces and was according to the established international health guidelines, the NCOC said in a statement.

“The purpose of the strategy is to vaccinate people in a healthy environment and in accordance with the health guidelines through a concrete plan,” said the NCOC.

The NCOC statement said that in addition to NIMS, numerous Adult Vaccine Centres (AVC) have been established across the country which will be run by the National Vaccination and Administration Control Cell (NVACC). The meeting was informed that the NIMS would be fully digital, aimed at limiting the human error, and it will impart the information relating to the AVCs and appointments for vaccinations to the masses automatically.

Once informed about the vaccination, the masses as well as the frontline healthcare workers will have to send an SMS to 1166 or visit the NIMS website for registration. Afterwards, a PIN code will be sent to the applicant while an AVC will be designated to them based on their present address. Once the vaccine is made available, the applicants will receive further details, said the NCOC.

Prior to the vaccination, the system will authenticate the Computerised National Identity Card number of the applicant. Once confirmed by the NIMS, the vaccine will be administered to the masses. The details will be viewable through a real-time dashboard of the system.

Meanwhile, Pakistan reported 1,563 new Covid-19 cases and 74 deaths during the last 24 hours. With 74 more deaths over the last 24 hours, the total tally hit 11,450. According to the latest statistics, 492,207 people have so far recovered from the disease.