ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on National Health Services, Regulations, and Coordination Dr Faisal Sultan on Tuesday dispelled the impression that the Sinopharm vaccine is no longer available in Pakistan and made it clear that it will be available in the future as well.
In a media briefing after a meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), he assured the nation that Sinopharm’s second dose to those who had received its first dose would be supplied and added that the priority will always be to administer both doses of the same vaccine.
He maintained that the Covid-19 vaccine is very effective to protect citizens from medical complications from many virus variants.
“Keeping in view the detection of new Covid-19 variants in Pakistan and raising questions on the effectiveness of vaccine process, I advise country people to must go for vaccination against the virus to avoid facing more complications and hospitalisation.”
He rejected some media reports on the side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine, terming them as misinformation. He added the vaccine is the same being used in many European countries.
He clarified that there were very few side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine and cases of blood clotting due to it were a rare occurrence. He said that in order to further reduce the chances of clotting from the vaccine, it would be administered only to persons above the age of 40.
He also said that the number of cases of vaccine side effects reported was just 4,329 against 3.8 million doses administered so far in the country. He added all of these side effects were mild while 90 per cent of the cases pertained to pain at the site of injection and fever.
He further said that the six cases which seemed serious have been investigated and all were found to be accidental and not caused by Covid-19 vaccines.
He urged the citizens to strictly follow Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) to prevent the disease in the wake of a sudden increase in the number of infections in the country.
Dr Faisal said that that this disease expansion had caused a burden on the country’s health system as Covid cases were jumping up for the past few weeks.
He said that keeping in view the disease risk certain restrictions were imposed focusing on high-risk sectors with mass gathering. He said that this time is not of any complacency rather strict compliance of SOPs.
Dr Faisal said: “Covid-19 is a deadly virus but we can control it just as we controlled it by following the SOPs during the previous waves. We can save precious lives including those of our near and dear ones by taking preventive measures.”
FULL SUPPORT TO AJK, SINDH FOR Covid VACCINE:
Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar on Tuesday said that the incumbent government is extending full support to Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Sindh regarding the coronavirus vaccine.
The leaders of Pakistan People’s Party had failed to ensure the availability of vaccine in their respective areas of Sindh, he said in an interview with a private television channel. He further stated that people are facing trouble in different hospitals due to the unavailability of Covid-19 vaccine.
The PPP and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders who ruled the country for long time could not succeed in fulfilling the basic needs of people, he lamented. Appreciating the management of Centre, he said the federal government has assisted AJK and Sindh and supplying vaccine dozes to meet needs of hospitals.
Replying to a question, Asad said that maximum dozes had been procured by the efforts of Central government. He added that we have also purchased the vaccine for fulfilling requirement of the public sector hospitals.
The private sector, he added, has imported vaccine of three types including AsteraZeneca and Sputnik. About complaints of AstraZeneca, it is better that people aged less than 40 years of age should prefer Sinopharm and Sputnik but above forty age people could use Oxford-AstraZeneca, he added.
