NIMS spotted irregularities in Covid vaccination drive: NCOC head

ISLAMABAD: The head of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) Asad Umar has said that National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) spotted irregularities in ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

A session of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) held under the chair of Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar today to review the pandemic situation and ongoing vaccination drive against novel coronavirus.

According to NCOC, the vaccination of frontline healthcare workers is underway across the country. The officials observed that the procedures for Covid vaccination drive devised by the health authorities are not being fully implemented. The prescribed procedures had been shared with the stakeholders prior to the launching of the vaccination campaign, however, violations were spotted by the authorities.

The officials said that provinces have been instructed once again to fully implement the vaccination guidelines.

Read: Federal govt prepares national immunisation management system

Asad Umar said that the irregularities were spotted by the National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) that was established to ensure transparency. He said that NCOC will ensure complete compliance of the vaccination guidelines and no tolerance will be made against those trying to by-pass NIMS and Resource Management System.

“Provinces have completed the registration of frontline healthcare workers in order to maintain transparency and only registered healthcare officials will be administered vaccines.”

The statistics provided by the NCOC showed that 27,228 healthcare workers mostly in Sindh have been administered COVID-19 vaccines across the country.

Vaccination of 21,121 healthcare workers was completed; 4,458 in Punjab, 691 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 274 in Islamabad, 239 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), 312 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and 133 in Balochistan, NCOC said.

Read: Countrywide anti-Covid vaccination drive starts

Earlier on February 7, Asad Umar had said that the Centre could take over the COVID-19 vaccination handling from the provinces if they are unable to manage it.

His remarks came in the backdrop of a complaint that daughter and son-in-law of Zubair Umar were administered COVID-19 vaccine in Karachi.

The NCOC head said that the healthcare workers are in dire need of the COVID-19 vaccine and any use of it other than this was meant to betray the trust of the nation.

It is pertinent to mention here that Sindh government had suspended BPS-18 Deputy District Officer Health Dr Annela Quershi on Sunday over violation of SOPs during the administration of Covid-19 vaccine at the Dow Ojha Campus vaccination centre.