Pakistan starts registering frontline workers for coronavirus vaccination

ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), the Pakistan federal government’s central body dealing with the pandemic, has started registering frontline health care workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, the Center said on its website on Sunday.
Pakistan is currently battling its second wave of the virus and recorded 1,877 new infections on Monday, with 32 deaths, a drop from previous weeks.
Last month, Pakistan said it will purchase 1.2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from China’s Sinopharm, the first official confirmation of a vaccine purchase by the South Asian country.
“Registration process of frontline health care workers (HWCs) of both public and private health facilities has been started in provincial health systems (Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces) and Resource Management System (Islamabad, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir),” the NCOC announced on its website.
The NCOC defined frontline workers as all staff at public and private COVID-19 hospitals and isolation centers, which includes clerical, administrative and sanitary workers and guards in addition to doctors, nurses and paramedics. Public health staff involved with testing, tracking and quarantining would also be registered, as well as staff that visited patients at home to collect samples.
Others who would be registered include: health care workers deputed to inject the COVID-19 vaccine and essential staff at Adult Vaccine Counters (AVCs) involved in handling of individuals being vaccinated; all laboratory staff for both public and private sector facilities who were collecting and processing specimens of COVID-19; staff carrying out screening and triage of suspected COVID patients in non-COVID-19 hospitals, emergency departments and points of entries; staff of private or public sector ambulance services dealing with COVID-19 suspected patients; and general practitioners registered with their respective health care commissions.
Giving details on the registration process, the NCOC said frontline workers in Punjab, Sindh and KP in both public and private hospitals would be registered at the provincial health system by the relevant health facility. Healthcare workers should contact their respective health facility administration to confirm that all required details had been communicated to the concerned district and provincial health departments for registration.
“HCWs in Islamabad, Balochistan GB and AJK will be directly registered in Resource Management System (RMS) by the concerned health facility/ district health department,” NCOC said. “HCWs to contact health facility administration to confirm all required details have been entered in the system by health facility focal person for RMS or by district health department. All HCWs in other relevant health facilities to contact local health authorities for information related to registration.”