Pakistan kicks off second phase of coronavirus vaccination drive

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday kicked off the second phase of the coronavirus vaccination drive with the hopes of ensuring that people over the age of 60 are vaccinated.

An official of the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, said that most senior citizens who have registered for vaccination will receive an SMS with instructions on their mobile phones and the oldest persons will be vaccinated first.

"The senior-most citizens will be the first ones to receive the doses of COVID-19 vaccine," Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan had said on Tuesday.

He urged the healthcare workers and those eligible to get vaccinated to protect themselves as well as their loved ones.

The health department had started the registration of people over the age of 60 for the immunisation programme from February 15. They had asked citizens to send a text message at 1166 or enter their details at the national immunisation management system (NIMS) website.

Once registered, the eligible citizens will be informed about the vaccine centre and the date of vaccination through a text message, the officials had said.

The government had launched the COVID-19 vaccine drive in early February beginning with the healthcare workers in the first phase after receiving 500,000 Sinopharm doses from China.

At least 25% of the 400,000 registered doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff registered have been vaccinated.

The official said under the GAVI-COVAX programme for countries, Pakistan was also likely to receive 17 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by end of June.

Seven million doses would be available in the first quarter and 10 million doses in the second quarter.

He added Pakistan was also in touch with other countries to get 73 million doses of the vaccine, which were likely to receive in the last quarter.