PESHAWAR: Five more people died of Covid-19 and 941 new cases were recorded in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday as the district administration continued to inspect vaccination centres in Peshawar to speed up immunisation.

Peshawar, which has 35 per cent vaccination rate, has recorded the highest number of mortalities due to the pandemic and coronavirus cases in the province. Orakzai, Swat, Charsadda, Dir Lower, Haripur, Chitral Upper, Abbottabad and Buner districts have achieved 100 per cent target during the ongoing vaccination drive, according to a report of health department.

Two more coronavirus patients died in Peshawar and one each in Mardan, Swat and Abbottabad.

Peshawar admin struggles to speed up vaccination

Peshawar Deputy Commission Khalid Mehmood visited vaccination centres in Cantonment area, Chamkani and other localities in the provincial capital and checked record, a press release said.

He urged people to get shots as per guidelines of National Command and Operation Centre and stay safe from the pandemic. He also called upon teachers to ensure that students of the eligible age received vaccines at the earliest.

The deputy commissioner also directed the staff to conduct inspections of bazaars, markets and halls and make it sure that people followed the standard operating procedures. “We can return to normal life only when all the people get injections and wear facemask, keep social distancing and wash hands,” he added.

According to report, Peshawar, which has recorded 50pc of the province’s total confirmed patients, detected 237 new infections, making its overall tally of cases 78,771. It has also recorded 1,982 deaths of the total 6,087 persons passed away due to Covid-19 since the onset of the pandemic in the province.

However, health authorities are struggling to increase vaccination rate in Peshawar, which has vaccinated 35.06pc of its population during the 14-day vaccination campaign launched on February 2.

Shangla has recorded 14.47pc, the lowest vaccination rate in the province. Lower Kurram recorded 20.58pc vaccination, Battagram 30.21pc, South Waziristan 32pc, Kohistan Lower 32.93pc and Bannu 42.1pc. The vaccinators are concerned about these districts.

Educational intuitions are yet to administer Covid-19 shots to 1.2 million students and other staff. Mardan is atop of the list with over 200,000 students to be immunised, Nowshera with 1, 24,000, Kohat with 117,000, Mansehra 89,000, Dera Ismail Khan 87,000, Swat and Dir Upper 81,000 each.

“These are hotspot districts where coronavirus is in full circulation and vaccination is the only way to interrupt its transmission,” officials said.

They said that most of the unimmunised children studied in private schools where vaccination was an issue.

They added that despite being infected with Covid-19, youngsters looked asymptomatic but were potential source to spread the virus.

The report said that number of active cases rose to 13,267 with 5,546 in Peshawar. Officials said they had targeted 120,000 persons above 12 years but only 16,000 had been immunised so far.

Now the main emphasis is on vaccination and standard operating procedures. Health department has established 1,096 fixed vaccination centres, 34 mass vaccination centres and deployed 78 mobile vans in addition to door-to-door campaign to inoculate 24 million citizens. So far first dose of vaccine has been administered to 16 million people and second dose to 11.4 million citizens.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2022