Sindh decides to administer free Pfizer booster shots

KARACHI: The Sindh Health Department on Thursday decided to administer a Covid-19 booster shot of the Pfizer vaccine to all healthcare workers in the province, ARY News reported.

The health department has written a letter to the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) in this regard as well.

According to a letter, the decision was taken in light of the healthcare workers being at an increased risk of contracting Covid-19.

“Due to constant exposure to patients in hospitals, all the healthcare workers are at greater risk of Covid-19 virus infection,” read the letter.

The inoculation will be done free of charge.

Earlier this week, the Sindh government had received 320,580 new Pfizer vaccine doses sent by the United States through the COVAX facility.

The United States (US) on September 6 shipped 6.6 million doses of Pfizer vaccine to Pakistan via the COVAX global distribution program to help the country inoculate its population against Covid-19.

Read: ‘PFIZER COVID-19 BOOSTERS MAY NOT BE NEEDED, BUT DO IMPROVE IMMUNITY’

“The U.S. has shipped another tranche of Pfizer vaccines to Pakistan. The 6.6 million doses will arrive in time to assist the Pakistani government inoculate young and at-risk Pakistanis and mitigate the fourth COVID-19 wave,” said the US Embassy in Islamabad in a Twitter statement.

It said this donation brings the total number of COVID-19 vaccines donated by the US to Pakistan to 15.8 million. The US is the single largest contributor supporting COVAX efforts toward global COVID-19 vaccine access, added the embassy.