Pakistan starts Covid vaccination drive today

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan will launch Pakistan’s anti-Covid vaccination drive that see health workers at the forefront of the country’s fight against the pandemic getting the jab in the first phase.

Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar tweeted that the vaccination drive will start today in the prime minister’s presence. “God willing, the national COVID-19 vaccination drive will commence in all provincial capitals tomorrow,” he added.

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He said frontline health workers will be administered the vaccine first.

آج وزیراعظم کی موجودگی میں کرونا ویکسین لگانے کی مہم کا آغاز ہو گا اور انشاءاللہ کل تمام صوبائی دارالحکومت میں قومی کرونا ویکسینیشن مہم شروع ہو جائے گی. سب سے پہلے ویکسین فرنٹ لائن ہیلتھ ورکرز کو لگائ جائے گی

— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) February 2, 2021

Sources within the health ministry told ARY News that the process of dispatching the Covid vaccine to all the provinces is underway with Punjab and Gilgit Baltistan having already been sent the vaccine by road.

The vaccine has been shifted from the EPI storage to Islamabad airport for its onward transportation to Sindh and Balochistan as well, the sources said, hoping that both provinces will get the vaccine by this evening.

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They said the vaccine has also been sent to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Jammu and Kashmir by road.

The sources said the corona vaccine stuffed in cold-chain containers is being transported amid tight security.