KARACHI: The Covid-19 vaccination coverage in Sindh has received a major boost due to an outreach programme launched this month across the province, health department officials told Dawn.

They said that once the door-to-door drive for Covid-19 vaccination was over by Dec 31, all the mass vaccination centres in the province would resume their round-the-clock timings from the next year.

According to the officials, the first dose coverage for Covid-19 vaccine has increased from 45pc (before the launch of outreach programme) to 55pc in the province; whereas that of double dose from 30pc to 40pc.

“We have received a very positive response from the public despite the fact that there was an anti-polio drive going on during the same time,” said Dr Samreen Ashraf Qureshi, the focal person for Covid-19 vaccination.

The health department had engaged a significant number of healthcare workers for the door-to-door outreach programme, which also led to reduce timings of the Covid-19 mass vaccination centres this month, which were earlier being run round the clock.

“Hopefully, the drive will end by Dec 31 and the mass vaccination centres will resume their old timings. Right now, these units are open the whole week from 8am till 8pm,” she said.

Currently, 12 mass vaccination centres are operating in the province including units at the Expo Centre, Khaliqdina Hall, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and Dow University of Health Sciences in Karachi.

A Covid-19 booster drive is also in progress in the province under which so far 125,000 people have received the dose.

In the first phase, booster doses were offered to front-line health workers, persons with weak immune systems and people aged above 50 years, who were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus six months ago.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2021