ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will start vaccinating refugees and other foreigners living in the country against COVID-19 from early April, a senior health official said on Wednesday.
Pakistan is aiming to vaccinate around 70 million people out of its 220 million population to reach herd immunity. It started a coronavirus vaccination drive with health workers in February. In March, it launched a vaccination campaign for the general public, beginning with those above the age of 60.
The vaccination of foreigners living in the country has been approved by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the apex body for Pakistan's coronavirus response, Dr. Rana Muhammad Safdar, director-general health at the Ministry of National Health Services, told Arab News.
“We are expecting to start vaccination of the foreign nationals in Pakistan in early April after receiving required information from ministry of foreign affairs," Safdar said. “We have decided to vaccinate all the people living in Pakistan, including foreign nationals and refugees."
While the number of foreign diplomats is not significant, UNHCR data shows that Pakistan hosts 1.4 million registered refugees from neighboring war-torn Afghanistan. The actual number is considered to be much higher, around the 2.5 million mark.
A list of foreigners who will receive COVID-19 jabs is expected to be compiled by the foreign ministry this week, Safdar said, adding that they would be vaccinated "according to the same categories established for Pakistani nationals."
He said if embassies preferred to use different vaccines than those currently in use by the government for the general public, they were allowed to do so after approval from the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan.
China’s Sinopharm and CansinoBio, Sputnik-V and the AstraZeneca vaccines have been approved for emergency use in Pakistan.
According to official data, the government has vaccinated over 450,000 people so far across the country, relying on Sinopharm jabs donated by China. Pakistan has a population of over 220 million.
“We are anticipating that supply of vaccines will pace up now," Safdar said. "We will open further age categories for vaccination very quickly for Pakistanis as well as foreign nationals."
