Pakistan started inoculating its frontline health workers against Covid-19 in February and elderly citizens in March this year. The country has now started vaccinations for all above 19. However, the challenge of vaccine hesitancy remains a hurdle.

Despite having insufficient vaccine doses at the moment and getting vaccine consignments from China and COVAX (a global consortium giving free vaccine to the developing and poor nations), the rate at which people are coming in for vaccination does not appear to be gaining enough momentum to reach a satisfactory level.

Although vaccination is now open to almost all adults, it appears to be moving at a sluggish rate. Federal and provincial governments are trying to come up with ways to convince people to come to the vaccine centres. A significant part of the population is reluctant to get the vaccine for various sorts of conspiracy theories that have been circulating and are being passed off as “social and medical reasons”.

The governments have now announced coercive measures to tackle the challenge. Sindh government has verbally announced blocking of government employees’ salaries if they fail to get the jab by the end of July. It has also cautioned that it would not issue driving licences to people if they failed to present a vaccination certificate. Recently, in the same vein, the Punjab government decided to block mobile SIMs of people who have not getting vaccine dose and ban their entry at public places like parks and restaurants. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the district administration of Peshawar has linked the issuance of land and property sale/purchase and documentation and issuance of arms license and provision of essential services with the vaccination. However, execution of this decision is yet to be seen. Many officials, speaking informally, say these moves are mostly verbal and cautionary, aimed at nudging the public to get vaccinated. According to them, these moves are getting an encouraging response as after such announcements the number of vaccinated people has been increasing.

“We support coercive measures that result in people getting vaccinated. Though these are [merely] verbal [announcements] at the moment, we see that they are working. We see the number of people partially vaccinated is going up on a day-to-day basis now,” says Dr Qaisar Sajjad, the secretary general of Pakistan Medical Association (PMA).

“We think that if a majority of people are vaccinated, it will help create herd immunity. However, it seems, [there’s] still a significant population, including doctors and paramedics, [who] are reluctant to get the vaccine,” he adds.

“Only universal awareness can help Pakistan meet this vaccine hesitancy challenge,” says Dr Sajjad, adding, “We see with such awareness and coercive measures, the positivity ratio is declining and people are coming to the vaccine centres.”

He says such moves, by helping people getting vaccinated, will ultimately lead to ending the Covid-related restrictions and that people should understand this.

“This will help [us] get back to normal and will save people from getting infected because those who are not getting the [vaccine] shot can be potential carriers of the virus.”

The latest official figures, released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the official body dealing with the Covid-19, state that so far 12,067,171 (12.06 million) vaccine doses have been administered till date. The country claimed administration of 10 million doses in early June. Out of these total 12.6 million, the figures show that 6,201,218 (6.2 million) are partially vaccinated and 3,107,688 (3.1 million) are fully vaccinated. However, the authorities have not accounted for the 3.3 million doses. The government aims to inoculate 70 million people by the end of this year. Till June 15, Pakistan had a total of 945,184 positive cases and 21,874 deaths due to Covid-19.

The vaccine is the most protective shield against Covid-19, and the PMA recently issued a statement advising people to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

“Do not listen or pay attention to myths related to Covid-19 vaccines. It is not harmful in any way. The people who do not get vaccinated could face infection with the disease,” it stated.

The PMA has advised the government to also increase the vaccination facilities to vaccinate more people in a shorter time and start more aggressive awareness campaigns. At least 70-75 percent of the population should be vaccinated as early as possible, it says, observing that that vaccination process is very slow.

“Only universal awareness can help Pakistan meet this vaccine hesitancy challenge,” says Dr Sajjad, adding, “We see with such awareness and coercive measures, the positivity ratio is declining and people are coming to the vaccine centres.”

The author is a staff reporter. He can be reached at vaqargillani@gmail.com           Twitter: @waqargillani