PESHAWAR: The vaccination of senior doctors against Covid-19 has been the main motivation factor for health workers, who are coming in droves to get inoculated at the centres established by the government.

A new strategy adopted by the government regarding vaccination has also worked. “We are vaccinating 2,000 health workers from the past one week because the heads of the hospitals are getting vaccination and the staff is following suit So far, we have vaccinated 22,000 frontline health workers throughout the province,” officials told this scribe.

Vaccination in country’s four provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan started on February 1 to inoculate frontline health workers, who were at the risk of pandemic. However, the momentum of vaccination was slow in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that worried the health department.

Initially, the department had planned to vaccinate 800 health workers, 50 at each of the 16 centres in eight districts, but the pace of vaccination remained low till last week because of the mechanism under which the vaccines were provided.

KP has already registered the names of 30,000 frontline health workers and they were informed through SMS messages by National Command and Operation Centre about their date of vaccination and respective centres.

So far 22,000 frontline health workers inoculated against Covid-19 in KP

However, the health workers didn’t turn up at the centres and the move of vaccination seemed to be a total failure as the number of vaccinated workers was less than 1,000 during the first two weeks of the campaign, said officials.

Subsequently, the health department convinced NCOC to change the strategy for vaccination and give open option to the workers to get vaccinated at their own convenience. The strategy worked.

“We are sending messages on 1166 and get quick response where we are advised to visit the nearest centre. Also, vaccine is available in district headquarters hospitals where the staff is getting it with ease,” said officials. They said that initially there was also misconception as people had fears about the efficacy of the Chinese vaccines due to which they stayed away from getting jabs.

Officials said that most of health workers also waited as they wanted to know about the side effects of the vaccines prior to getting themselves inoculated. As there was no reaction of the vaccination so the health workers started vaccination.

“Second main factor regarding impetus in vaccination drive is the inoculation of senior doctors. It has emboldened others to get the vaccines,” said officials.

A cardiologist at one of the hospitals told Dawn that there was hesitancy against Covid-19 vaccination in his hospitals but when he and the medical superintendent were vaccinated, the health workers started to get doses.

Officials said that senior doctors played vital role in paving the way for vaccination of the health workers, who were reluctant to get the shots in the early days of the campaign. Now the health authorities say that they expect huge influx of general public and elderly people when their vaccination gets underway.

“By March 5, we would be able to vaccinate 28,000 health workers after which we can simultaneously begin inoculation of the elderly and people above 18 years for which NCOC is providing vaccines,” they said.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2021