KARACHI: As many as 979 frontline healthcare workers in Sindh were administered Covid-19 shots during the past 24 hours, the provincial health department said on Thursday.
After receiving half a million jabs of China’s Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine, the authorities began the distribution of the vaccine simultaneously in all provinces and administrative units of the country Wednesday.
Of the total, 108 medics were vaccinated at Khaliq Dina Hall vaccination centre, 102 at Dow University of Health Sciences, 34 at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), 75 at Qatar Hospital, 14 at Sindh Government Hospital in New Karachi, 113 at Liaqatabad Hospital, 36 at Children Hospital, 37 at Sindh Government Hospital in Korangi and 145 at a private hospital in Malir.
Outside Karachi, 129 workers were inoculated against the disease at Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro and 186 at Regional Blood Center (RCB), Shaheed Benazirabad (former Nawabshah).
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”, on Tuesday. The shipment marked the first shots to be imported into the country where more than 549,032 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 this month, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had announced late last month.
