KARACHI: Ninety per cent of the patients who are being hospitalised with Covid-19 complications in the province are unvaccinated. This shows the need for mass vaccination, a target being actively pursued by the provincial government. It hopes to inoculate half of the province’s population by the end of next month.

This was stated by Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho while speaking to journalists at the launch of the city’s third drive-through vaccination centre set up in the parking area of the National Stadium.

The facility set up by the health department in collaboration with HBL and Pakistan Cricket Board has the capacity to inoculate 2,500 people in a day.

The other two drive-through vaccination units have been established in Clifton and F.B. Area.

Third drive-through vaccination facility launched

“The provincial government is utilizing all its resources for mass vaccination. It is hoped that we not only meet but surpass the NCOC (National Command and Operation Centre) target of vaccinating 40 per cent of our population by the end of this month,” the minister said in reply to a question, adding that so far nine million people had been vaccinated in the province.

The minister rejected the impression about lack of treatment facilities for Covid-19 patients and said there was no shortage of ventilators or hospital beds.

“Right now, we have enough space and facilities at several hospitals including Services Hospital, Abbasi Shaheed Hospital as well as healthcare facilities under the Sindh Employees’ Social Security Institution.”

The minister urged the general public to avail the opportunity of drive-through vaccination available free of cost and supplied with sufficient stocks of all vaccines against coronavirus.

“Until 70 to 80pc of the population is vaccinated, we cannot hope for normalcy. People who haven’t [been] vaccinated yet must do the needful at the earliest as they are putting their own life and that of others at risk,” she said.

The government, she pointed out, had also launched mobile vaccination units to ensure that people in every district benefit.

“In addition, several vaccination centres are operating round the clock, seven days a week. We have also developed a system to facilitate people who don’t have a national identity card.”

To a question about the students intending to go abroad for studies and who need to get a mandatory vaccination certificate for visa, the minister said the department currently had all coronavirus vaccines including Pfizer and Moderna and that all vaccination centres had been given directives to facilitate students.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2021