Pakistan formally started the drive to administer COVID-19 vaccines to its frontline healthcare workers on Wednesday, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said.
The nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive was launched after Pakistan received a gift of 500,000 doses of the vaccine developed by Sinopharm from China
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan in the ceremony held in Capital, oversaw the start of Pakistan’s coronavirus vaccination campaign, with the first jab administered to a doctor.
While speaking in a ceremony, the PM congratulated the health team as they moved rapidly in order to secure the vaccine. Premier also thanked China for the gift of 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine to Pakistan.
The vaccine would be first administered to all health workers working with Covid-19 patients, followed by the elderly in the high-risk age group, PM stressed. “This (vaccine) is being distributed equitably among all the provinces so no one thinks we’ve provided more of it to one province,” he cleared.
Moreover, he urged all healthcare workers to be vaccinated as they were most at risk and appealed to everyone to follow Covid-19 standard operating procedures.
“If Allah has blessed Pakistan as compared to the rest of the world, we should be grateful for that and take full precautions,” he emphasized. “If there is anything that slows the spread of the virus, it is a mask.”
He went on to say that educational institutions have been reopened and now is the turn of hospitals as coronavirus cases are declining day by day.
“Look at what is happening in Europe, America — they have had more than 400,000 deaths, […] while there is a complete lockdown in Britain,” the premier said, noting that while some Western countries had shut down their economies, Pakistan’s economy was functioning and restrictions were in place only in the services sector.
“If you take precautions, we will open the other sectors as well.” He concluded.
