Mass Covid-19 vaccination centres in Sindh to go round-the-clock from next year

Published December 27, 2021
People stand in a queue waiting for their turn to get themselves vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccine at a mobile centre in Karachi. — APP/File
People stand in a queue waiting for their turn to get themselves vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccine at a mobile centre in Karachi. — APP/File

KARACHI: The Covid-19 vaccination coverage in Sindh has received a major boost due to an outreach programme launched this month across the province, health department officials told Dawn.

They said that once the door-to-door drive for Covid-19 vaccination was over by Dec 31, all the mass vaccination centres in the province would resume their round-the-clock timings from the next year.

According to the officials, the first dose coverage for Covid-19 vaccine has increased from 45pc (before the launch of outreach programme) to 55pc in the province; whereas that of double dose from 30pc to 40pc.

“We have received a very positive response from the public despite the fact that there was an anti-polio drive going on during the same time,” said Dr Samreen Ashraf Qureshi, the focal person for Covid-19 vaccination.

The health department had engaged a significant number of healthcare workers for the door-to-door outreach programme, which also led to reduce timings of the Covid-19 mass vaccination centres this month, which were earlier being run round the clock.

“Hopefully, the drive will end by Dec 31 and the mass vaccination centres will resume their old timings. Right now, these units are open the whole week from 8am till 8pm,” she said.

Currently, 12 mass vaccination centres are operating in the province including units at the Expo Centre, Khaliqdina Hall, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and Dow University of Health Sciences in Karachi.

A Covid-19 booster drive is also in progress in the province under which so far 125,000 people have received the dose.

In the first phase, booster doses were offered to front-line health workers, persons with weak immune systems and people aged above 50 years, who were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus six months ago.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2021

Opinion

Editorial

Ultimate price
Updated 02 Nov, 2024

Ultimate price

To dismantle culture of impunity for crimes against journalists, state must ensure that perpetrators do not go unpunished.
Mastung bombing
02 Nov, 2024

Mastung bombing

INSTABILITY continues to haunt Balochistan, as Friday morning’s bombing in Mastung has shown. At least nine...
Plane speak
02 Nov, 2024

Plane speak

DESPITE all its efforts to facilitate PIA’s privatisation, it seems the government only ended up being taken for a...
Seeking investment
Updated 01 Nov, 2024

Seeking investment

Foreign visits will be fruitless unless crucial structural, policy reforms directly affecting investors are focused.
State-backed terror
01 Nov, 2024

State-backed terror

OVER the past year or so, India’s reportedly malign activities in foreign countries have increasingly come under the radar, with
Shared crisis
01 Nov, 2024

Shared crisis

WITH Lahore experiencing unprecedented levels of smog, the Punjab government has announced a series of “green...