ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Dr Faisal Sultan on Wednesday reaffirmed his commitment to ensure availability of COVID-19 vaccine to
extend vaccine coverage to the whole population.
He was addressing the participants of an international level consultative meeting on COVID-19 Vaccine: Strategies and Policies for extending coverage which was organized by the Health and Population Think Tank (HPTT) at Health Services Academy, Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination.
Dr Faisal said that the government has secured sufficient doses in the month of June to ramp up the vaccination drive in the country of 220 million population.
He said that there has been hearsay that vaccine doses were short in the country and added that it was a global phenomenon and shortage of vaccine was the world over issue.
He said that the vaccine situation was improving gradually as more vaccines were reaching Pakistan. He said that the government was in contact with local and provincial administrations to make up the shortfall. “We are locally making load balancing and redistribution to manage the situation across the country.”
Parliamentary Secretary Dr. Nausheen Hamid, highlighted the steps taken by the government in addressing vaccine coverage issues and added that Pakistan’s efforts were recognized by WHO as among exemplary country whose response can provide guidelines to other countries in COVID-19 response.
International experts on COVID-19 Vaccine from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, national essential preventive immunization head, National Institute of Health provided technical input related to challenges on extending COVID-19 vaccine coverage.
The discussion commenced by informing the participants about the COVID-19 vaccine coverage challenges, strengthening of trainings, gender bias issues, social and risk communication perspective related to vaccination and its international standing.
A detailed discussion took place on better management of adverse events following immunization, indigenous vaccine production of COVID-19 vaccine, gender bias and social issues related to COVID-19 vaccine call coverage to develop recommendation for better communication strategies perception and, coverage challenges of COVID-19 vaccine in Pakistan.
Dr. Yasmeen Qazi, Representative of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Pakistan discussed gender bias issues on vaccine coverage and their potential solution.
National EPI Manager briefed about existing challenges and potential solutions related to COVID-19 vaccine adverse events following immunization, vaccine distribution and logistics.
Executive Director of NIH briefed about Covid vaccine production and clinical trials held earlier in Pakistan.
Vice Chancellor, HSA, Dr. Shahzad Ali Khan apprised the participants about the progress on strengthening capacity building essential for extending vaccine coverage, adverse events following immunization, implementation and operational research to resolve on-ground challenges.
Other partisans highlighted the issues of equity, far flung areas outreach, disease surveillance system importance, effective communication strategies, gender based distribution, provincial health systems roles and utility of think tanks in providing policy recommendation.
The meeting was concluded with a consensus for a timely response and effective decision-making for extending effective COVID-19 vaccine coverage in Pakistan.
The meeting was attended by all the relevant stakeholders, leadership from the Federal and Provincial Health Departments, Federal and provincial extended preventive immunization, National Command and Control Centre (NCOC), Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), Vice Chancellors of public and private sector universities, and technical experts from the University of Manitoba, Canada, and others.