• Thursday, March 28, 2024

coronavirus

Pakistanis over 19 years can get vaccination

A health worker inoculates a man with a dose the Sinopharm vaccine in Karachi on May 26, 2021. (Photo by RIZWAN TABASSUM/AFP via Getty Images)

By: ChandrashekarBhat

PAKISTAN has opened up its Covid-19 immunisation programme for most of its adult population as the improving supply of vaccines enabled the country to progressively reduce the lower age limit for coronavirus jabs.

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the federal nodal agency to implement the country’s coronavirus measures, announced on Wednesday (26) that registration for the vaccination will begin on Thursday (27) for people aged 19 years or above.

NCOC chief Asad Umar said the enrolment will be open for “the entire national population” approved by health experts.

“In today’s NCOC meeting we decided to open up vaccination registration for all 19 years and above. This registration will start from tomorrow. So now registration will be open for the entire national population which is approved by health experts for Covid vaccination,” he said on Twitter.

The country started registrations for Covid jabs on May 3 for people aged 40-49 years and followed it up by including people aged 30 years or above for the mass immunisation drive.

The federal government on Wednesday (25) announced the local production of the single-dose CanSino, the first Chinese vaccine put to clinical trial in Pakistan. The production of three million doses of the vaccine per month at the Islamabad-based National Institute of Health (NIH) is expected to significantly reduce Pakistan’s dependence on the import of coronavirus jabs.

Media reports said 12,0,000 doses of the vaccine were already packed with the label PakVac and health authorities changed the brand name back to CanSinoBio.

“Though the name PakVac was used for the first batch, there has been a change of mind and the vaccine would be called CanSinoBio as the Chinese are sensitive about the names of their products,” Dawn quoted an unnamed NIH official as saying.

The coronavirus infection rate has gone down considerably in the country although the spread remains relatively high in Sindh province.

Pakistan Weekly

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