Nationwide COVID-19 vaccine drive to start from February 3

The federal government has officially decided to initiate nationwide COVID-19 vaccine drive from February 3.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), a special aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) carrying 0.5 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine landed at Nur Khan Airbase today.

All measures for anti-COVID-19 vaccination drive have been finalized. The government has decided to swiftly distribute the China-gifted vaccine to the federating units to start the vaccination process.

The Covid-19 vaccine that arrived at Nur Khan Airbase this morning will be shifted to the Expanded Programme on Immunisation’s (EPI) storage in Islamabad from where it will be transported to the provinces.

The EPI will transport the vaccine in cold-chain containers, the sources said, adding the federal government will provide cold boxes, dry ice and syringes to the provinces.

The vaccine will be transported to Sindh, Balochistan, and Gilgit Baltisitan by air while to Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by road.

In the first phase, the frontline health workers fighting the pandemic will be vaccinated, while vaccination centres across the country have been set up.

In Punjab as many as 189 vaccination centres have been established, 14 in Sindh, 280 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 44 in Balochistan, 14 in Islamabad, 25 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 16 in GB, the NCOC said.

The vaccination drive will be controlled through a digital mechanism.