ISLAMABAD: As part of the strategy to make shelter homes safe and secure and promoting healthy lives at the premises, Naseemur Rehman, focal person for the Panahngah programme, has sought the National Command and Operation Centre’s (NCOC) support for the inclusion of the programme’s workers in the priority list for Covid-19 vaccination.
According to Naseem, a formal request for vaccination of over a hundred frontline team members managing food, shelter and provision of the sophisticated environment at the shelter homes of the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad has been made to Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar who also heads the NCOC.
“In a first leg, we are going to make sure that the service providers of twin cities are vaccinated, following which as part of the effort to expand this initiative to across the country, provincial authorities will also be approached,” he noted.
He said that such an initiative would send a strong message for vaccination’s efficiency and safety for all, particularly the vulnerable groups.
In a letter, Naseem underscored the need for inclusion of field staff, describing them as “among the most vulnerable groups” due to high exposure to the potential sources of coronavirus at such congregated settings.
“Like the frontline health workers, they are also exposed to the looming threat of Covid-19 and deserve inclusion in the priority list in harmony with the government urgent and equitable roll out vaccination.”
Naseem further said that his office would look forward to facilitating the health officials for inoculation of the service providers including supervisors, shift manager staff, and security guards against the coronavirus.
He also forwarded contact details of the services providers to the NCOC chief.
As per the roll-out plan, the vaccine will first be made available to more than 400,000 doctors and frontline healthcare workers, teachers and social workers because they run the highest risk of exposure to the contagious disease.
After that, the shots will be provided to citizens over the age of 65, who generally face a higher mortality risk from the virus.
Pakistan received its first tranche of the Sinopharm jabs, given by China as a “gift”, earlier this month. The shipment marked the first shots to be imported into the country where more than 563,029 cases of the disease have been reported since the outbreak in February last.
In addition, the government is due to receive a further 1.1 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine by the end of February, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had announced late last month.
