News Desk :
After a slow start in inoculating its population against covid19, Pakistan has stepped up its drive for mass vaccination averting nationwide lockdowns. Currently, this drive has resulted in achieving a daily vaccination rate of over 400,000 jabs. Whether the country can achieve its ambitious target of vaccinating 50% of the population by end of the year remains to be seen.
Pakistan’s health minister, Dr Faisal Sultan, an infectious disease expert trained in US, said recently that besides securing 13 million doses from China, Pakistan has signed agreement with Pfizer-BioNTech for supply of another 13 million doses and plans to procure 90 million doses by end of the year.
According to a report on the Wall Street Journal, Pakistan has made vaccination mandatory for all public and private sector employees. Anyone above 18 can now get vaccinated in Pakistan.
The main impediment in getting people vaccinated inthe country is not availability but fears of side effects among its 200 million plus population. A recent survey by the Pakistan government has revealed that only 55% of the population are ready to get vaccinated.
Parallel to making vaccines available to its population for free, Pakistan was one of the first countries to allow private companies to import and sell vaccines in the country. These vaccines are available for commercial sale for those who can afford to pay. The government does not implement price caps on privately imported vaccines.
Nevertheless, the government of Pakistan is being criticized by world community for implementing punitive measures that seem harsh. Measure under consideration include cutting mobile phone services to people who qualify but refuse to get vaccinated.
The Sindh province is withholding salaries of unvaccinated government employees. While government officials in Karachi are planning to stop issuing licenses to people without vaccine certificates.
The Oxford educated prime minister of Pakistan; Imran Khan has stressed from the outset that nationwide lockdowns are not a viable strategy for a poor nation like Pakistan. He said at a national coordination committee meeting back in March 2021: “We have to adopt a balanced policy where the spread of the virus can be prevented and where the poor man and the country’s economy are least affected.”
Pakistan, which shares around 3,500 kilometers of border with India (nearly same as Bangladesh), has managed to drastically reduce its infection and death rates using the mass vaccination drive. The death rate, which is well below 50 per day, is the lowest in the past 8 months.
