ISLAMABAD: A special Pakistan Air Force (PAF) plane left for Beijing early Sunday morning to bring back the first batch of half a million shots of the state-owned Sinopharm’s coronavirus vaccine “gifted” by China to Pakistan.
In a statement, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said that necessary steps had been taken to store the doses in Islamabad.
“All necessary measures have been put in place for vaccine storage at Islamabad and [transportation] of vaccine to various federating units particularly to Sindh and Balochistan through [the] air,” the statement further said.
The authorities have already decided on a “comprehensive strategy” for the administration of the shots and other administrative measures.
The government had approved the Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use on January 18, two days after AstraZeneca’s vaccine co-developed with the University of Oxford received a similar authorisation from the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP).
Subsequently, on January 21, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi announced China has agreed to provide 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine “free of cost”.
“I thanked them and also told them we need more than this, and in the future, we will need 1.1 million doses, and they reassured us and said by the end of February we plan to meet this requirement for you as well,” Qureshi had added.
COVAX SHOTS BY JUNE:
A day earlier, Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar, who also heads the NCOC, confirmed COVAX, a global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to coronavirus vaccines for all countries, has indicated a supply of up to 17 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Pakistan by the end of June.
“Good news on Covid-19 vaccine front. Received a letter from COVAX of indicative supply of up to 17 million doses of AstraZeneca in 1st half 2021,” he tweeted.
According to him, six million of the total 17 million doses will be received by March with delivery starting in February. He, however, did not specify any dates.
“We signed with COVAX nearly eight months back to ensure availability,” he added.
HOW TO GET VACCINATED:
A step-by-step guide of NCOC’s plan to get the coronavirus vaccine is given below:
In the first step, at-risk citizens, including frontline healthcare workers, will send their Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) numbers to 1166 through SMS or use National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) website for registration.
After necessary verification, designated AVC (Adult Vaccine Centre) (based on “Present Address” and PIN Code will be sent to the citizen through SMS).
If the designated AVC is outside the current tehsil of the citizen, he/she can change the designated health facility by visiting NIMS web portal or by calling the 1166 helpline within 5 days of receipt of the first SMS.
Upon availability of vaccine at the designated vaccination centre, SMS will be sent to the citizen to obtain an appointment date for vaccine administration.
After successful registration, the citizen will visit AVC on the date of appointment along with the original CNIC and received PIB Code. The vaccination staff will verify the CNIC and PIN code.
After successful verification, the citizen will be vaccinated. Upon vaccine administration, vaccination staff will enter the details in NIMS and a confirmation message will be sent to the citizen through SMS. The citizen will stay in AVC for 30 minutes for the post-inoculation monitoring.
In the last step, a real-time dashboard for the federal, provincial and district health departments will be generated automatically.
In this regard, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan has said that so far 400,000 health workers have been registered for vaccination.
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