-SAPM on Health Dr Faisal says COVID vaccine is safe, over 140,000 health
workers have inoculated against deadly virus
By Ajmal Khan Yousafzai
ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi Friday said Pakistan was administering COVID-19 vaccine to its citizens on merit unlike some other countries where the incidents of queue breaking were reported.
Mentioning a report of The New York Times in his tweet, Dr Alvi termed the attitude of rich and powerful skipping the line ‘shameful’.
The report gave an overview of how a wave of corruption scandals exposed the powerful and well-connected in South America for jumping the lines to get vaccines early. “Vaccination for COVID of VIPs (very important persons), elite and powerful by breaking the queue is shameful. It has been reported internationally,” the president said in the tweet.
On the other hand, he said, Pakistan took pride for remaining safe from that attitude and upholding the spirit of merit. “But Pakistan has remained safe from this attitude. This is Naya Pakistan of merit & we must take pride,” he added. Separately, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan Friday said over 140,000 health workers had been vaccinated for COVID-19 across the country.
Talking to a private news channel, he said the COVID-19 vaccination should be 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.
He asked the health professionals who had been immunized the COVID-19 vaccine 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 alarmed that vaccine hesitancy could lead to rise in the number of coronavirus cases. The special assistant said the World Health Organisation had approved it and nearly 35 countries were using it, including the United Kingdom. “It is a safe vaccine,” he added.
“It is a serious matter, we need to take a disciplinary action against those health workers refusing for COVID-19 vaccine and their acceptance is yet slow,” he added. Faisal said people around the world had been receiving COVID-19 vaccine, reports of temporary side effects such as headache and fever were rolling in, adding, normalcy would only return in the country and all over the world when people were being protected from this disease. He explained that in first phase, two categories of people would be administered the vaccine front-line healthcare workers and people over 65 years of age.
“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 mentioned.
