Sindh introduces system for Covid-19 vaccine without prior registration

KARACHI: The Sindh government is doing away with the condition of prior registration for getting the Covid-19 jab and instead a walk-in system is being introduced at the vaccination centres of the province.

This was disclosed by Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho who on Sunday inaugurated Pakistan’s biggest mass coronavirus vaccination facility at the Karachi Expo Centre.

Any eligible person can just walk in at the Expo Centre and get themself registered there without any prior requirement at any of the registration counters.

A visitor to the Expo Centre is just required to carry his or her computerised national identity card for the purpose. The names of the walk-in visitors are later fed to the national Covid-19 vaccine registration database. The Sindh government is also going to start vaccinating people below 40 years of age from May 16. It will be the first province in the country to do so. The Expo Centre mass vaccination centre has been established in District East, where alarming spread of the coronavirus infection has taken place.

A single shift of the mass vaccination centre has a staff of 360 healthcare workers. A total of 96 cubicles have been established at the centre and a total of 12 counters set up for registration. It is also the first vaccination facility of the country that works round the clock.

The health minister said that they had been doing their best to make the vaccine available to the maximum number of people in the shortest possible time.

She mentioned the decision of the National Command and Operation Centre of making 70 million doses of the vaccine available in the country by the end of the year.She said the Sindh government was also willing to spend money from its own exchequer to purchase the vaccine.