Vaccination drive

The only way to contain the spread of Covid-19 is to speed up the vaccination process. The current pace of the country’s vaccination programme is abysmally slow – with an average of close to 25,000 doses per day. In Bangladesh, more than 65,000 vaccine doses, on average, are administered on a daily basis. The main reason for this slow speed is our reliance on vaccines we received as donations from friendly countries. In December 2020, the government announced that it had allocated $250 million for the purchase of the vaccine. No one knows what happened to that fund.

If we are serious about eradicating coronavirus from Pakistan, we have to carry out the vaccination process even more aggressively. The government should aim at getting 70 to 80 percent of our population vaccinated in a timely manner. We cannot possibly do that if we depend solely on donations from friendly countries and welfare organisations.

Akbar Jan Marwat

Islamabad