Pakistan: Vaccine registration for 30+ begins on May 16 amidst low inoculation rate

By Pooja Shrivastava

VACCINE registration for persons aged 30 years and above in Pakistan is set to start from Sunday (16). The announcement was made by National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) chief Asad Umar on Wednesday (12) on Twitter.

"As vaccine supply continues to improve and vaccination capacity gets enhanced in all federating units, we continue to expand the categories of those who are eligible to get vaccinated. Starting Sunday, the 16th of May, registration will be open to all 30 years and older citizens," tweeted the NCOC chief.

Earlier, Umar said that "concerted efforts" are being made to increase the supply of vaccines as well as expand the country's vaccination capacity. Commenting on the country’s age-wise vaccination drive, he said that since it was important to inoculate the vulnerable segment of the population first which was seeing a higher mortality rate.

"The risk of mortality due to covid rises sharply with age,” Umar said. 

On May 3, Pakistan opened registration for the coronavirus vaccination for people aged between 40 to 49 years while walk-in vaccinations for people aged 50 and above are underway in the country.

As of May 6, Pakistan had vaccinated 3.32 million people, which is about 0.8 percent of its population of 216 million. The percentage of vaccinations per 100 people stands at just 1.53 percent, against the global average of 16.44 percent. 

Experts are pointing out the negative publicity and shortage of vaccines as the main reasons behind such a low rate. 

Dr. Abdul Ghafoor Shoro of the Pakistan Medical Association believes it could take up to a “decade to inoculate every citizen” if the country continues its vaccination drive at the current pace. Even health care workers are still waiting to be vaccinated, he said.

Experts feel that there is widespread hesitancy among the public regarding the Covid-19 vaccine, especially AstraZeneca, on social media but the government is not doing much to counter it.