THOUGH still far from the target of fully inoculating 70m people, the government’s efforts to administer both doses of the vaccine to 20m and the first dose of the vaccine to 50m people should be commended. In the earlier stages of the vaccine roll-out, the government had set a target of fully vaccinating 70m people by the end of this year. So far, the government has administered 67,342,288 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine with the national positivity ratio hovering around 6pc. Though a large section of the public was initially hesitant to get themselves vaccinated, there has been a surge in the number of people lining up to avail the free inoculation facility. Only in the past week, the government administered more than 1m doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. At the current rate, it would take another 38 days to vaccinate another 10pc of the population. This is encouraging news. Moreover, government officials remain confident that they will not only achieve but surpass the target, as indicated by Planning Minister Asad Umar’s tweet.

However, considering that the country is still several million doses short of achieving the target of 70m fully vaccinated people by the end of this year, the authorities have their work cut out for them. It is obvious that a large number of people have not returned for their second dose. Vaccine hesitancy, owing to widespread misinformation, still remains a big hurdle in the way of quicker and complete vaccination. There have been cases of infection and deaths in between doses, perhaps reducing some people’s belief in the efficacy of the vaccine, without realising that both jabs are needed for stronger protection. Even with the Covid curve apparently reaching a plateau, the number of deaths still remains relatively high. So there is no room for complacency. More needs to be done to persuade people to get themselves inoculated and to ensure that SOPs continue to be maintained at all times. The government must also ensure booster shots for those who had been vaccinated earlier.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2021