Islamabad: The Pakistani government is planning to vaccinate more than 300,000 frontline health care workers within the next three weeks, the prime minister’s special adviser on health said on Monday after a Pakistan military aircraft brought back the country’s first consignment of COVID-19 vaccines produced by China’s Sinopharm.
The official rollout of the vaccine campaign will start this week on Wednesday, February 3, Dr. Faisal Sultan told Arab News.
“The process will take two to three weeks for this phase,” he said.
The South Asian nation of 220 million has already registered over 300,000 frontline health workers through a digital system. They will be vaccinated in the first phase of the vaccine campaign, followed by elderly people, over 65 years of age, who will be vaccinated in the second phase, after which the vaccine would be made available to the public.
The government is expected to receive another tranche of 1.2 million doses that Pakistan has pre-booked from China. Pakistan has also secured 17 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine under a global scheme to deliver coronavirus treatments to developing nations, Sultan said in an official statement last week.
About 6 million doses will arrive in Pakistan in the first quarter of 2021 under the COVAX scheme, with the remaining due by mid-year. The country last year signed up for the vaccine sharing scheme coordinated by the World Health Organization to support lower-income countries.
Pakistan is currently battling its second wave of the virus and recorded 1,615 new infections with 26 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 546,428 with 11,683 deaths since February last year when the first COVID-19 infection was reported in the country.
The health ministry has said all arrangements, including cold chain management, stock and smooth supply of the vaccine, are in place and would be monitored from Islamabad through a National Immunization Management System. The ministry will maintain a record of the number of vaccine doses delivered and utilized in each province and district, as well as the number of people vaccinated.
Pakistan to start vaccine drive on Wednesday, cover 300,000 health workers within three weeks
https://arab.news/yecnr
Pakistan to start vaccine drive on Wednesday, cover 300,000 health workers within three weeks
- Pakistan military aircraft brought back country’s first consignment of COVID-19 vaccines from China on Monday
- Frontline workers to be vaccinated in the first phase starting Feb 3, followed by the elderly and then the general public
UN torture expert decries Pakistan ex-PM Khan’s detention
- Khan’s party alleges government is holding him in solitary confinement, barring prison visits
- Pakistan’s government rejects allegations former premier is being denied basic rights in prison
GENEVA: Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan is being held in conditions that could amount to torture and other inhuman or degrading treatment, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on torture warned Friday.
Alice Jill Edwards urged Pakistan to take immediate and effective action to address reports of the 73-year-old’s inhumane and undignified detention conditions.
“I call on Pakistani authorities to ensure that Khan’s conditions of detention fully comply with international norms and standards,” Edwards said in a statement.
“Since his transfer to Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi on September 26, 2023, Imran Khan has reportedly been held for excessive periods in solitary confinement, confined for 23 hours a day in his cell, and with highly restricted access to the outside world,” she said.
“His cell is reportedly under constant camera surveillance.”
Khan an all-rounder who captained Pakistan to victory in the 1992 Cricket World Cup, upended Pakistani politics by becoming the prime minister in 2018.
Edwards said prolonged or indefinite solitary confinement is prohibited under international human rights law and constitutes a form of psychological torture when it lasts longer than 15 days.
“Khan’s solitary confinement should be lifted without delay. Not only is it an unlawful measure, extended isolation can bring about very harmful consequences for his physical and mental health,” she said.
UN special rapporteurs are independent experts mandated by the Human Rights Council. They do not, therefore, speak for the United Nations itself.
Initially a strong backer of the country’s powerful military leadership, Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in 2022, and has since been jailed on a slew of corruption charges that he denies.
He has accused the military of orchestrating his downfall and pursuing his Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and its allies.
Khan’s supporters say he is being denied prison visits from lawyers and family after a fiery social media post this month accusing army leader Field Marshal Asim Munir of persecuting him.
According to information Edwards has received, visits from Khan’s lawyers and relatives are frequently interrupted or ended prematurely, while he is held in a small cell lacking natural light and adequate ventilation.
“Anyone deprived of liberty must be treated with humanity and dignity,” the UN expert said.
“Detention conditions must reflect the individual’s age and health situation, including appropriate sleeping arrangements, climatic protection, adequate space, lighting, heating, and ventilation.”
Edwards has raised Khan’s situation with the Pakistani government.
