Door-to-door Covid-19 vaccination to kick-start in Sindh from Feb 1

KARACHI: The provincial Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), under the supervision of Sindh health department and with the support of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), is going to launch a door-to-door Covid-19 vaccination campaign in Sindh from February 1 to 14 to enhance vaccination coverage, officials said on Thursday.

The Covid-19 pandemic is still prevailing with new variants emerging, while the rapid spread of the virus during the last few weeks requires speedy immunization activities to boost the immunity of the population.

This campaign aims to administer first dose of vaccine to 12,748,123 people above 12 years of age, while another 5,712,014 will receive their second dose of vaccine, making it a total target of 18,460,137.

The EPI Sindh intends to deploy 10,988 skilled persons and social mobiliers across the province to reach the masses with the first and second dose of Covid-19 vaccine and they will be supervised by 1,134 UCMOs.

The vaccines available for this campaign include 180,495 doses of Sputnik, 354,652 doses of Moderna, 2,201,759 doses of Pfizer, 676,641 doses of Sinopharm, 2,131,573 doses of Sinovac and 474,875 doses of Atrazeneca.

This campaign is the need of the hour as Sindh has reported 51,000 cases of Covid-19 during the last 30 days. The vaccines will help the citizens protect against the virus and severe illness. Currently, 37 percent of Sindh’s eligible population, 13.907 million citizens, is fully vaccinated, while another 18.810 million have received first dose of Covid-19 vaccines.