ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan on Monday asserted that the government was trying to make Islamabad a fully vaccinated city.
Talking to journalists in the federal capital, the Special Assistant spoke about the efficiency of mobile vaccination teams after inaugurating the community vaccination centre in the federal capital.
“We are working on making Islamabad a 100% vaccinated city where every citizen is fully vaccinated,” said Dr Sultan. He added to accomplish this goal, the government needs to bring the mobile vaccination teams into optimum utilisation because “there are some people who don’t want to get out or it’s not easy to reach them”.
Faisal Sultan pointed out that there were poor people or people who do not have enough resources that they can afford to take some time off from work to go and get vaccinated. “Under these circumstances, instead of waiting for them to come and get vaccinated, we take the vaccination facility to them,” he added.
The special assistant further said that establishing a community vaccination unit was a revolutionary step by the health department. Giving further details of the mobile vaccination teams, he said that it would be a four-member team, including a driver.
“There is a person who vaccinates, a doctor, and a female health worker for the facilitation of people according to their requirements and answer their question,” said Dr Sultan.
According to Dr Sultan, the benefit of mobile vaccination teams was that they will help in fully vaccinating the city which will make the contagion difficult to spread. “Once that goal is accomplished, we will be able to say that we can get rid of wearing face masks and other restrictions,” he added.
“Firstly, the vaccine itself is effective and secondly the government has procured it for the people,” said Dr Sultan, adding that people who have taken the first dose must get the second one without any delay.
He particularly advised that pregnant and breastfeeding mothers should get vaccinated too and assured that the vaccine was totally safe for them. Speaking about a possible dengue outbreak in Islamabad, he said that people shouldn’t let the rainwater be collected at any spot.
50pc vaccine-eligible residents inoculated in Islamabad
Islamabad had fully vaccinated 50 percent of its over 1.16 million people against COVID-19, becoming the “first city in the country” to do so, Planning Minister Asad Umar said on September 12.
“Islamabad has become the first city in Pakistan to have at least 50 percent of its eligible population (15 years & older) fully vaccinated,” Umar, who also heads the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), Pakistan’s anti-coronavirus body, said in a Twitter post.
