KP govt firm to vaccinating all healthcare providers despite some refusals

PESHAWAR: Amid reports of refusals by some of the health workers, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department has made it clear it is committed to vaccinating each and every frontline healthcare provider in the province.

The federal government had on February 3, 2021 sent 2,800 doses of Covid-19 vaccines to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department for the vaccination of the frontline healthcare providers in the first phase.

The vaccination process was quite slow in the first few days but then Secretary Health Syed Imtiaz Hussain Shah came out in support of the health directorate and personally supervised the immunisation process by visiting different healthcare facilities.

The purpose was to provide the vaccine to all the deserving health workers on time.

Also, the vaccination process was voluntary rather than mandatory and this was stated to be one of the reasons that slowed the immunisation drive in the province.

Another reason was the less number of the vaccination centres. Presently, there are 135 vaccination centres in all the 36 districts of the province, including the seven newly-merged districts (NMDs).

In every district, there is a vaccination centre but in some of the districts such as Peshawar, Mardan, Abbottabad, Swat, Nowshera, Charsadda, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, etc, the number of immunisation facilities are more than one.

Initially when the campaign was launched, there were rumours that some of the health workers refused to be vaccinated as they had certain reservations and had raised questions over efficacy of the vaccines that have been donated to Pakistan by its neighbouring country.

Some of the people in the medical community had alleged that the vaccine had side-effects.

To kill such rumours, Secretary Health Syed Imtiaz Hussain decided to publicly vaccinate himself to give a message to the health workers that the vaccine was effective and had no side-effects.

The Health Department has to-datedate vaccinated 25,840 frontline health workers in the province against the coronavirus.

According to officials of the health department monitoring the immunisation campaign, there has not been a single case of side-effects of the vaccine to any healthcare worker in KP.

According to the secretary health, some of the healthcare providers had certain reservations but 89 percent of them have now been vaccinated.

He said efforts were underway to vaccinate the remaining health workers.

The health workers in the tertiary care hospitals in Peshawar on condition of anonymity told The News that they had refused to use the Chinese vaccine, Sinopharm, due to their perception that it might not have good efficacy and safety.

Pakistan has so far approved Russia’s Sputnik vaccine, China’s Sinopharm and CanSinoBio, and the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine for use in the country. The government has also authorised the private sector to distribute the vaccine shots.

Dr Faisal Sultan, advisor to the prime minister on health, had stated in January this year that 400,000 health workers had been registered to get the jab.

The KP health department is also hoping to receive more vaccines for the elderly people in the near future.

The federal government has also approved the Sinopharm vaccine for use in people beyond 60.

Dr Faisal Sultan said Covid-19 infections and hospitalisations in Pakistan are increasing once again. He told The News that Covid virus of the UK variant had reached 90 countries including Pakistan.

He took to Twitter on Friday and said the decline seen over the past two months was clearly reversing as positivity has gone up from 3.31 percent to 4.16 percent within a week.

“We must remember that the pandemic is not over. Save lives by following SOPs. Please avoid crowded places (especially indoor and if poorly ventilated), wear a mask and wash your hands frequently. If you are a healthcare worker (any age) get vaccinated now. For all others, if you’re above 60, send your CNIC (no spaces) to 1166 via SMS,” he appealed to the people in the tweet.