Govt starts walk-in vaccination for people above 40 from Wednesday

After enabling walk-in vaccination for people over 50 last month, the same facility has been extended to people over 40, starting tomorrow, said Minister for Planning and Development, Asad Umar.

The Federal Minister revealed that vaccination centers will remain open throughout the Eid holidays with the exception of the first two days of Eid.

“Starting tomorrow the 12th of May all 40 plus who have registered will be able to walk into any vaccination center of their choice and get vaccinated. Please note that vaccination centers are open and will only be closing for two days on Eid.”

Asad Umar, who also heads the government’s efforts against the COVID-19, said that only seven percent of Pakistan’s population is above the age of 60 and 53% of all covid deaths have been in this age bracket.

“Conversely 77% of Pakistan population is below the age of 40 and only 9% of total covid deaths in Pakistan have been in this age bracket.”

Only registered individuals can walk into any vaccination center and get a jab. For registration, people must send their CNIC to 1166.

The government of Pakistan is administering the Sinopharm, CanSino, SinoVac, and AstraZeneca vaccines free of cost. It is pertinent to mention that these COVID vaccines are also being administered by staff at government-designated vaccination centers, i.e. hospitals.

May 10-16 have been announced as Eid holidays. As these are gazetted public holidays, it is unclear how the government will incentivize the staff at vaccination centers to work on these days.

On May 4th, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) Chief, Asad Umar said that the vaccination drive for Pakistanis above 18 years will commence after Eid if there are no problems with vaccine availability.