NCOC holds special session to discuss Covid vaccination strategy

ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has organised a special session for discussing the implementation of the strategy to begin COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Pakistan, ARY News reported on Thursday.

A special session has been organised by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) ahead of implementing the strategies devised for initiating COVID-19 vaccination programme.

The session was attended by Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Khusro Bakhtiar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar, Surgeon General of Pakistan Army Lieutenant General Nigar Johar Khan, Director General Military Operations (DGMO) and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) chairman, whereas, Commerce Advisor Abdul Razak Dawood joined the meeting through video link.

The chief coordinator for NCOC, Lieutenant General Hamooduz Zaman updated the participants of the special session regarding the strategy formulated to begin COVID-19 vaccine administration across the country.

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The participants of the session have exchanged views on the national strategy for COVID-19 vaccination and relevant statistics of the pandemic.

Earlier in the day, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry revealed that frontline workers will get COVID-19 vaccine free of cost in the first quarter of 2021.

Fawad Chaudhry said in a Twitter message that the cabinet committee had decided to procure 1.2 million COVID-19 vaccines from a Chinese company Sinopharm. He added that frontline workers will be given the vaccines free of cost in the first quarter of next year.

The federal minister said that the private sector had also been permitted to import globally approved vaccines.

Today’s NCOC special session was organised after a major development made by the federal government yesterday by taking a decision to procure the coronavirus vaccine from brotherly country China.

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It had been decided during a meeting of the special committee on procurement of COVID-19 vaccine chaired by the Federal Minister for Planning and National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) chief Asad Umar in Islamabad.

Taking to the Twitter, Asad Umar had announced that the cabinet had given nod to the procurement of more than one million coronavirus doses which will cover all frontline health workers. “Target is to deploy these vaccines within 1st quarter of 2021,” he added.

On Wednesday, the federal government made another progress by making an announcement to prepare the National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) with the joint efforts of different ministries.

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) had said in a statement that the National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) was jointly prepared by the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination (NHSRC), Ministry of Interior and the National Information Technology Board (NITB).

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The NCOC had detailed that the preparation of NIMS aims effective supplies of COVID-19 vaccines across the country after collecting accurate data prior to the administration of the vaccines to the nationals.

The relevant authorities will start the registration process in phases for the coronavirus vaccination by using the newly-developed immunisation management system. Citizens will be sent SMS for registering themselves to the NIMS database through their computerised national identity card (CNIC) numbers, added NCOC.

Pakistan had earlier decided a comprehensive strategy, ‘Vaccine Administration Plan’, for beginning coronavirus vaccination drive across the country earlier in the month.