PESHAWAR: After observing a weak response to novel coronavirus vaccination by registered frontline health staff, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has agreed to approach the National Command and Operation Center for approval to prescribe the vaccine to hospitals’ ready second-line health providers.
On Monday, 16 centres were set up by the health department to distribute the Covid-19 vaccine to 30,000 health staff who were susceptible to intervention in the care and treatment of patients with the virus.
However, most of those employees are hesitant to attend vaccine centres, Dawn was told by department officials.
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They said that the NCOC equipped the department with a total of 800 vaccine doses daily for frontline health staff, with each centre providing 50.
Seeks NCOC nod for giving vaccine to second-line health workers
The authorities, however, said that over the last four days, only 408 employees were vaccinated against the virus, while the goal was 3,200.
They announced that they would ask the NCOC, whose meeting was scheduled to take place on Monday (tomorrow), to authorise the province to vaccinate hospital health staff who were not already enrolled in the list given to it.
The officials said the province had received 16,000 doses from the NCOC based on registered health workers, but their inability to get vaccinated against the virus forced the department to use the reserved vaccine quota for second-tier workers who were also vulnerable to the virus.
It was a very recent vaccine, they said, but most health officials were hoping for the outcome of others being vaccinated.
The officials said the coronavirus vaccination started with senior staff collaborating with Covid-19 patients in medical schools and other health facilities to give a message to the prospective recipients that the vaccine is healthy.
“We have forwarded the names of 64,000 people who are scheduled to be vaccinated after two months in the second phase, but now they will be asked to come for vaccination,” said an official.
He said that healthcare professionals had ‘certain observations’ about the safety of the vaccine, its response and the rules of the government, which disallowed aged people and those with underlying health problems to be vaccinated.
The department wants 800 doses a day to be given, 50 at all 16 centres. 408 people have been vaccinated in the last four days against a target of 3,200,’ he added.
“We have forwarded the names of 64,000 people who are scheduled to be vaccinated after two months in the second phase, but now they will be asked to come for vaccination,” an official said.
He said that healthcare practitioners had ‘many observations’ regarding the efficacy of the vaccine, its response and the government’s laws, which prohibited vaccination of elderly people and others with underlying health conditions.
The department needs to be given 800 doses a day, 50 at all 16 centres. In the last four days, 408 individuals were vaccinated against a target of 3,200,’ he said.
Dr Shahzad Faisal, head of the Hayatabad Medical Complex Hospital, who received the Covid-19 jab during the inaugural Covid-19 vaccination ceremony in Islamabad, shared a video in which he was seen exercising in a gym.
In the meantime, Dr. Faisal Sultan, the prime minister’s special assistant on national health services, told Dawn that the government was committed to protecting the lives of health staff and other persons.
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He said the reaction of the world to the pandemic had been very strong.
Meanwhile, on Saturday in the province, the health department reported four Covid-19-related deaths and 158 cases.
The coronavirus caused Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to lose 1,952. Officials said that, considering the poor positive ratio, random research in schools will continue in advance.
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