The National Command and Operations Center released a detailed plan on how the process of vaccination would be carried out with details of the priority list that would be given the first preference for the vaccine. The scientific procedure of herd immunity requires at least 70% of the total population to be vaccinated and when calculated an approximation of 70 million Pakistanis (minus those who have already caught the virus and recovered successfully and young individuals below the age of 18 years) need to be vaccinated. There are multiple manufacturers that have provided generous amounts of vaccines to Pakistan including Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and Cansino. Further talks on securing more vaccines for the process of herd immunity are underway.
The vaccination process has been divided into 3 stages. During the first stage, frontline health workers are to be vaccinated following which all those who are above the age of 65 are to be vaccinated and in the last stage other healthcare workers and those between the ages of 60 years and 64 years will be vaccinated.
The vaccination strategy is as follows:
- Registration: Citizens need to send their respective CNIC numbers to 1166 via SMS or register themselves onto the NIMS website.
- Vaccine Center and verification: Once the registered address is verified and the registration is confirmed. The system will then redirect you to the designated AVC – Adult Vaccine Center based on your current address and will send you a unique PIN code. If you wish to change your allocated AVC; you may change it through the NIMS web portal or you may call the helpline at 1166 within the first 5 days of receiving the first SMS.
- Scheduling: Once the vaccine is available at your designated AVC, you will be contacted to schedule an appointment for successful vaccination.
- Verification: Staff at the center will verify CNIC and your PIN code on the appointed day so don’t forget to carry your CNIC!
- Vaccination: The vaccine will be administered and you will be required to stay at the AVC for about 30 minutes so that any signs and symptoms can be monitored.
- The real-time dashboard: A real-time dashboard will be maintained wherein the details about all individuals will be updated regularly; this information will be accessible to all the government health departments at the district, provincial and federal levels.
COVID Vaccine Centers in Sindh
There are a total of 14 AVCs – Adult Vaccine Centers established in the province of Sindh. As per the details released by the officials, districts south, east and central will get two centers each while Korangi, Malir and west will each get one centre in Karachi. Other districts of Sindh where vaccination centers have been set up include Hyderabad, Larkana, Mirpurkhas, Shaheed-Benazirabad and Sukkur.
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