Pakistan: Frontline health workers in Islamabad show reluctance for COVID-19 jabs

Islamabad: Two weeks after the vaccination drive was launched in Islamabad by Prime Minister Imran Khan, fewer than 1,000 frontline health workers have been administered the jab.

The health workers include doctors, nurses, paramedical staff and workers of various public sector hospitals and health departments.

The latest figures released by the National Command & Operation Centre (NCOC) reveal that out of approximately 7,000 frontline health workers of Islamabad, only 859 have received jabs.

According to the breakup, Sindh with 32,860 health workers vaccinated so far is ahead of Punjab (15,494), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) (1,639) and Balochistan (252).

Doctors and paramedics in Islamabad are reluctant to receive COVID-19 jabs, according to the senior officials of the National Health Ministry.

The federal capital had received 8,000 vaccine doses to administer to around 7,000 frontline health workers of the federal capital including doctors, paramedics, nurses and staff in various public sector hospitals and mobile teams of the District Health Office (DHO).

“We were expecting that between Feb 3 and Feb 15, we shall be able to vaccinate all the frontline health workers in the first phase of vaccination drive as the second phase has already been announced and people above 65 years are asked to get registered for vaccination,” said Director General (DG) Health of Islamabad Dr Rana Muhammad Safdar.

However, unfortunately, the doctors community and also the paramedics preferred to ‘wait and see’ instead of receiving jabs,” he said.

The Joint Executive Director of the Pakistan Institute of medical sciences (PIMS) Dr Minhajus Siraj also confirmed that by Wednesday 411 health workers were vaccinated.

On Feb 17, we vaccinated only 40 at the PIMS vaccination centre, he said.

The situation is not much different at the other vaccination centres, said a senior official of the District health office.

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has, meanwhile, urged all the frontline health workers to get themselves registered for vaccine administration in their respective areas.

In a statement, Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Minister Asad Umar said the frontline workers are the top priority and all efforts will be made for their safety and protection.

Pakistan on Wednesday reported another 56 deaths and 1,165 new cases of COVID-19 during the previous 24 hours.

According to the official portal of the National Health Ministry, 1,484 patients recovered during the period. With these latest figures, the country’s number of infections has surged to 565,989 and death toll to 12,436.