Sindh to begin vaccinating people against virus from 2nd week of January

The Sindh government has set up a Provincial Vaccination Coordination cell to finalise arrangements for procurement and distribution of coronavirus vaccination in the province. 

Sindh Health Minister Azra Fazal Pechuho said after chairing a meeting on vaccination procurement and distribution on Friday that the government would start administering vaccination to people this month. She said the Sindh government would receive the vaccination in the second week of January. The Vaccine Taskforce and the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) would jointly provide the vaccine to the Sindh province. 

In the first phase, the coronavirus vaccination would be administered to health professionals and frontline health workers. Every recipient of the coronavirus vaccine would get the second doze after 21 days. The Sindh health secretary would be supervising all arrangements for procurement and distribution of the vaccination. She said that Sindh would initially receive 250,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine. 

The minister said that health providers from both public and private hospitals in the province would be administered the coronavirus vaccination in the first phase. She directed the healthcare facilities to compile data of their healthcare workers. She said that all those who would be receiving the vaccine would be contacted by phone. She said that 50 cubicles would be set up at the Karachi Expo Centre and 50,000 people would receive vaccine the place in a single day. 

After Karachi, Dr Azra said, the coronavirus vaccine would be provided to tertiary hospitals in other cities of the Sindh Province. In the second phase, she said, people over 60 would be given vaccination and then there would be the turn of people suffering from various diseases. 

Sindh Health Secretary Kazim Jatoi, Sindh Assembly’s Parliamentary Secretary on Health Qasim Siraj Soomro and other officers also attended the meeting.