Everyone should get COVID vaccination without hesitation, says SAPM

(Karachi) Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr. Faisal Sultan has said that all those who are eligible should get COVID vaccination to curb the spread of the disease.

In a video message on social media, he said: "As speculation about variants continues, it's important to remember that every virus mutates and the coronavirus is not unique for doing so."

He added, "We're learning more about variants but in the meantime, everyone who is eligible should get vaccinated right away without hesitation."

“All viruses go through a process of evolution over time,” Dr Sultan explained. “As a result, new variants and types of the virus keep coming up,” he stated.

He said that some variants increase the chance of reinfection, and urged people to get inoculated.

He said a few days back, a Covid-19 variant was found in the UK, which was termed as B.1.1.7 and it is present in several countries.

Earlier, the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations, and Coordination said the South African and Brazil variants of coronavirus had been detected in the country, urging people to continue taking precautions and register for a vaccine.

It said that the health authorities and the National Command and Operation Centre are regularly monitoring Covid-19 variants of concern. “As a result of this proactive effort, one sample of the SARS-COV-2; B.1.351 ("South African" variant) and one sample of SARS-COV-2; P1 ("Brazil") variant have been detected at the National Institute of Health through genome sequencing.”

The National Institute of Health stated that the B.1.351 variant was detected in a sample taken from a man belonging to Mianwali while the P1 virus was identified from a person whose test was conducted at Islamabad’s Poly Clinic.