Covid-19 vaccine: Frontline health workers to be inoculated by Q1 2021: NCOC

ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) Thursday announced that all frontline healthcare workers would be inoculated with Covid-19 vaccine by the first quarter of 2021.

The NCOC held a special session on Covid-19 vaccine availability and efficient administration to mull over the national vaccine strategy being devised to amicably ensure the immunisation process.

The forum discussed the epidemic curve chart data, whereas NCOC National Coordinator Lieutenant General Hamooduz Zaman Khan appraised the forum on the national vaccine strategy in line with the decision taken by the NCOC.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Faisal Sultan, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Division Khusro Bakhtyar, SAPM on Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar, Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Lieutenant General Akhtar Nawaz Satti, Surgeon General Pakistan Army Lieutenant General Nigar Johar, and Director General Military Operations (DGMO) Major General Nauman Zakria, attended the special session of the NCOC.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood attended the session via video link.

The forum was briefed in detail by NCOC Director-General Major General Asif Goraya that all efforts would be made to help facilitate federating units for smooth vaccine administration.

“As per the strategy, the frontline healthcare workers are in the first stage of inoculation process of Covid-19 vaccine whereas in the next level, people above 65 years would be administered the vaccine due to their higher vulnerability to the deadly virus,” the official informed NCOC.

“A special online National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) (portal) was developed by the NCOC in collaboration with the National Information Technology Board (NITB) which would serve as a brain of the entire immunisation process,” the NCOC was apprised.

The meeting was also told that that vaccine administration cells would be set up at all district and sub-division headquarters, hospital and regional health centres to ensure grassroots level approach of the vaccination process.

People would be trained by experts who would then begin the training of healthcare workers for the inoculation process, the forum added.

“The training process would initiate at the federal, capital and provincial level[s].”

The NCOC was also told that vaccine administration cells would be established in all district and Tehsil headquarter hospitals, as well as regional health centres, to ensure that immunisation was carried out at grassroots level.

The session, organised to discuss the national vaccine strategy, was further informed that master trainers would be imparted knowledge about the inoculation process, who in turn would train healthcare workers on administering the vaccine.

The training sessions for master trainers will be held in all the provinces and in the federal capital.

NCOC Director General Operations and Planning Maj Gen Asif Mehmood Goraya assured the participants of the meeting that all-out efforts would be made to facilitate federating units in carrying out smooth vaccination.

As stated earlier by the NCOC, only frontline health workers would be inoculated in the initial phases of vaccination, and the vaccine would be administered to people above the age of 65 in the second phase, as both the groups were at a higher risk of contracting the coronavirus.

During the third phase, health workers and individuals between the ages of 60 and 64 years will be vaccinated.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021