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KARACHI: The Sindh government has put on hold its plan to import vaccines amid improved supplies from the centre and multiple unsolved issues between the provincial and federal governments which were crucial to complete the process, officials and sources said on Wednesday.
They said the Sindh government’s plan to buy the single-dose vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics Inc to boost this process was unlikely to get materialised but the funds set aside for that purpose had not been abolished yet.
“There are a few issues which we need to understand for this scenario,” said an official citing the current status of the Sindh government plan. “The federal government is already importing a huge quantity of vaccines from different sources. They are buying at certain prices which we don’t know. The Sindh government cannot strike any deal at prices higher than the federal government was offering. The Sindh government also requested the federal government to import vaccines on its behalf but there was no encouraging response from the centre.”
Secondly, he said, the supplies of vaccines to the province from the centre had improved over the weeks which had further brought the situation under control at the administrative level. The situation at the vaccination centres was not like that as was witnessed around a month ago, he added.
The provincial govt has set aside Rs500m for import of single-dose CanSino vaccine
The Sindh government in April 2021 had announced that it would import the single-dose vaccine CanSino directly from its developer CanSino Biologics Inc to boost the vaccination process, setting aside Rs500 million for the purpose. The officials said that the funds were still available and it could be utilised as per the defined requirements.
“Thousands of people are getting jabs daily in Sindh,” said the official. “We have increased the number of vaccination centres and currently some 200 such facilities are operating across the province. Apart from regular vaccination centres in other parts of Sindh, a number of 24-hour vaccination centres are in operation in Karachi. For instance, the Children’s Hospital and the New Karachi Hospital in district Central are serving this purpose. The Expo Centre and Dow University’s Ojha Campus are operative in district East, while the Khaliq Dina Hall and Jinnah Hospital’s vaccination centres are being operated round the clock in district South. The Government Qatar Hospital in district West and the Murad Memon Hospital in district Malir are also operating 24 hours a day. Vaccination centres in district Korangi include the Sindh Government Korangi No 5 Hospital.”
To contain the spread of the coronavirus and its most infectious Delta variant 19, he said, the country had no other option but to complete vaccination of its people. In case of hesitation from the people over vaccination, he referred to the opinion of the doctors and health experts who wanted complete lockdown and zero tolerance on the restrictions only to save life and contain the spread of the coronavirus.
“That’s the reason that Sindh is the only province where as a major move in the ongoing nationwide inoculation drive, the provincial government has recently also allowed Covid-19 vaccination of adults not having computerised national identity cards (CNICs),” he said. “Since these people don’t have any CNICs, the vaccination staff would ask them for any document or piece of information which can help track their record and build their separate database for documentation and provincial certification. That can be anything whether it’s a cellphone number, their residential address, an affidavit, contract details of their employers — anything. The prime objective is to vaccinate everyone.”