KARACHI: At a time when the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is spreading rapidly and is expected to reach its peak by the middle of this month, the Sindh government, in view of the dire situation, has decided to take extraordinary measures to send health teams door to door to vaccinate the general public.
According to officials, about 70 million Pakistanis or 32 per cent of the total population have been vaccinated. Children over the age of 12 are now being vaccinated in schools but the situation in the country’s largest city is deteriorating due to the Omicron variant. The fifth wave of the epidemic has hit hard, and the cases are multiplying in Karachi.
Keeping in view this situation, the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), Sindh Health Department, the NCOC and the Federal EPI are conducting door-to-door Covid-19 vaccination campaign to enhance the coverage of the vaccinations. “The Covid-19 pandemic is still on with new variants emerging and the rapid spread of the virus in the last few weeks requires a [speeding] up of immunization activities to boost the immunity of the population”, said Parliamentary Secretary Health Qasim Soomro.
The Sindh government has set a target of 12,748,123 citizens above 12 years of age who will receive their first dose for the campaign while another 5,712,014 citizens will receive their second dose of the vaccine. Mr Soomro said the government is determined to provide lifesaving vaccine at people’s doorsteps to ensure that citizens are protected from the coronavirus and for that it has set a target of 18,460,137 citizens over 12 years of age to get their shots.
Secretary Health Sindh Zulfikar Shah has informed that 90pc of the patients in the Covid-19 wards are those who are unvaccinated, which means that the targeted vaccinations are not being met. “This campaign is the need of the hour as Sindh has reported 51,000 cases of Covid-19 in the last month. The vaccines will help citizens stay protected against the virus, or if contracted, then to remain safe from its severity”.
Sharing the data regarding the vaccinations so far, the secretary health said 37pc of Sindh’s eligible population, 13.907m citizens, were fully vaccinated while another 18.81m have received the first dose of their Covid-19 vaccines till the day we started the door-to-door campaign.
The EPI Sindh has deployed 10,988 skilled persons/social mobilizers across the province to reach the masses with the first and second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. The vaccines available for the 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 AstraZeneca.
This campaign will further help increase the coverage, while the citizens will have the opportunity to get vaccinated at their own doorsteps.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press briefing on Covid-19, on Feb 1 warned the world of severity and called for effective action in this regard. He said, “Since Omicron was first identified, almost 90 million cases have been reported to the WHO; a figure that is more than what was reported in 2020. We are now starting to see a very worrying increase in the number of deaths in most regions of the world”.
While addressing about the current narrative prevailing with regard to the lower severity of the Omicron variant, Dr Tedros said, “We are concerned that a narrative has taken roots in some countries that because of the vaccines, and because of Omicron’s high transmissibility and lower severity preventing transmission is no longer possible, and no longer necessary, is mind boggling. Nothing could be further from the truth, more transmission means more deaths”.
