At new vaccine center in Islamabad, Pakistanis can pick their COVID-19 jabs from menu

RAWALPINDI: Which COVID-19 vaccine do you want to get: the AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Sinovac or CanSino?
At a newly inaugurated vaccination center in Islamabad’s F9 Park, Pakistanis can now choose which vaccine they want to be administered — the only inoculation facility in the country to offer such a facility. 
The center, which has 75 counters and is designed to administer 7,000 shots a day, was inaugurated on May 19 by planning minister Asad Umar, who also heads the National Command and Operations Center that oversees Pakistan’s pandemic response.
“The center provides all four vaccines currently available in Pakistan,” Dr. Fawad Khalid Khan, a doctor at the facility, told Arab News on Thursday. “These include AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Sinovac and CanSino. Most of the time the clients have the option to choose whatever vaccine they want for themselves.” 
Dr. Osman Ulvi, a medical officer at the vaccination center, said the range of vaccines available at the facility met required international standards.
“As long as what you want is available, we will furnish your request,” he added.
On Wednesday, Pakistan opened up its coronavirus vaccination campaign to everyone aged 19 or older as it scrambles to protect more of its 220 million people. Pakistan initially had to deal with vaccination hesitancy and a shortage of vaccine supplies and had limited shots to people aged 30 or over.
But with purchases and donations from China and allocations from the World Health Organization and the GAVI Vaccine Alliance, it has now secured more than 18 million doses and is keen to get them out into the population.
Just on May 8, Pakistan received 1.2 million doses of AstraZeneca and has also started locally producing China’s single-dose CanSino jabs with the help of Chinese raw material and a technology transfer agreement. The government says the country aims to produce three million doses a month locally and is urging the public to get shots. 
In fact, the message of the F9 Park center is that it offers faster, more efficient service so people deterred by long lines at other centers too can be persuaded to come in for their jabs. 
At present, the estimated maximum waiting time at the Islamabad center is 30 minutes. At other centers around the country, people have often had to wait for up to three hours or more to get a shot. 
“We have established this mass vaccination center to reduce waiting time and have been getting good feedback,” Dr. Zaeem Zia, district health officer in Islamabad, told Arab News. “If you think that other vaccination facilities are taking too much time, just come to our mass vaccination center.”
“Everybody should get themselves vaccinated since it will help us contain the virus in Islamabad,” he said, “and make life safer for everyone.”