Pakistan on Tuesday launched a massive door-to-door Covid-19 vaccination drive, in an ambitious attempt to inoculate around 35 million people across the country, in the middle of the Omicron surge. By last month, around 52 percent of the total eligible population were fully vaccinated. 

A total of 55,000 teams will provide the first, second, and booster doses to people free of cost, said Faisal Sultan, the head of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the country’s nerve center for the pandemic response. 

“First phase of the campaign is starting from today and would last for two weeks. Its target is to vaccinate more than 35 million people,” Sultan was quoted as saying by Express Tribune newspaper. A country of 227 million, Pakistan has fully vaccinated close to 35 percent of people. 

The push for the national inoculation drive comes at a time when the country has been battling the fresh surge, fuelled by the Omicron variant. Currently, the positivity rate hovers around 10 percent, with the country reporting an average of over 5000 cases daily. 

Through this door-to-door, authorities plan to vaccinate as many people as possible, including booster doses for those who are eligible. 

Islamabad’s response to the pandemic remains relatively better than most of its South Asian neighbors during the previous surges. 

Recently, the United States donated 4.7 million Pfizer vaccines to Pakistan to boost its vaccination coverage. 

(SAM)