Covid-19 vaccine shots have been administered to more than 100,000 frontline healthcare workers across the country, the government said Thursday.
Speaking to a news channel, Dr. Nausheen Hamid, parliamentary secretary for health, said health workers, who are at the forefront of the country’s fight against the pandemic, were administered the vaccine in the first phase.
Hamid said the process of the registration of citizens aged 65 years and above is underway, urging people to get themselves registered for the drive.
She said the situation will further improve with the arrival of more doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.
The government launched a nationwide vaccination campaign on February 3, with more than 400,000 doctors and frontline healthcare workers, teachers and social workers being covered in the first phase because they run the highest risk of exposure to the contagious disease.
As per the roll-out plan, the second phase, due to start from March 1, will focus exclusively on citizens over the age of 65, who generally face a higher mortality risk from the virus, and all remaining healthcare workers, while the general public would be accommodated in the third phase.
Pakistan received its first tranche of the Sinopharm jabs, given by China as a “gift”, earlier this month. The shipment marked the first shots to be imported into the country where more than 564,077 cases of the disease have been reported since the outbreak in February last.
In addition, the government is due to receive a further 1.1 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine by the end of this month, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had announced in January.
