THIS is with reference to the report ‘Vaccination centres likely to remain closed on all three Eid days’ (May 5). One wonders how a health facility can be closed down like that. After all, the vaccination centres are health facilities and, in view of the pandemic, they need to be even considered critical health centres.

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) had rightly started the Covid vaccination drive in terms of age groups, but that has now led to a huge problem for those who have had their first vaccine shot, and are now struggling to get their second dose owing to a massive increase in rush as more age groups have now been included.

Needless to stress the point that the second shot has to be administered within a specific time window relative to the first dose. Now just imagine what the situation would be like when the entire vaccination process will remain suspended during the Eid holidays. It will be a massive chaos with serious health repercussions.

At some centres, there have been separate queues for those awaiting to get their first shot and those who are there for the second dose. This is a logical thing to do, but unfortunately such arrangements have been done by respective administrations rather than by the NCOC which would have ensured uniform application of this logic.

What really needs to be done is to increase the vaccination centres and make all of them functional round the clock without a break. They should be treated as hospitals, which most of them already happen to be, and should function 24/7.

Shakil Ahmed Bokhari

Karachi

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2021