Pakistan faces scarcity of coronavirus vaccines
KARACHI: The vaccination process has stopped in most of the cities of Pakistan because of dearth of coronavirus doses.
The Punjab government has suspended the vaccination process across the province for two days. The stock of AstraZeneca vaccine has finished at Lahore’s expo centre and the government officials said that it will take one week to the vaccine to arrive at the centre now. Therefore, those willing to get themselves vaccinated with AstraZeneca jab for going abroad should come after one week, they added.
On the other hand, a meeting of the provincial task force on coronavirus was held under the chairmanship of Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah. The meeting also decided to close the vaccination centers on Sunday due to shortage of vaccines in Karachi, while 19 centers would remain closed in Hyderabad.
Corona vaccination has also stopped in most of the districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
According to the health department sources, the stock of COVID-19 vaccine in Peshawar is only 5,000 and the vaccination process is feared to stop today. Peshawar is short of all four types of vaccines and mobile vaccination service has also been suspended in the city.
The KP health department said that vaccines were being procured from small districts in Peshawar. The next batch of vaccines will arrive in Pakistan on June 22 and will be available by June 23, it added. So, the vaccination would resume on June 24 in KP.
District Health Officer Dr Kachkol said that there was shortage of COVID vaccine in Mardan also, however vaccines would arrive in the district on Sunday night.
