Pakistani sanitation workers seek priority in COVID-19 vaccination program

Cleaners sweep a street after supporters of Sufi cleric Muhammad Tahirul Qadri leave the capital following Qadri's a deal with Pakistan's government, in Islamabad on January 18, 2013. (REUTERS/File)

• The Solid Waste Management Association of Pakistan says sanitation workers are more vulnerable to health risks than other groups
• The Pakistan Medical Association says doctors and paramedics are skeptical toward the safety and efficacy of Sinopharm vaccine

ISLAMABAD: An association of Pakistan's sanitation workers said Friday the government must prioritize over two million members of their professional community while managing the immunization drive against COVID-19 since these people were even more vulnerable than frontline health workers.
The government received the first shipment of Sinopharm vaccine from China on February 1 and said it would vaccinate doctors and paramedics during the first phase of the immunization campaign.
“The sanitary workers are at least five times more vulnerable to the coronavirus than hospital employees due to the nature of their job,” President Solid Waste Management Association of Pakistan Jamil Asgher Bhatti told Arab News.
He said the government had provided personal protective equipment (PPE) to health workers across the country to minimize their exposure to the virus, besides giving them special training to deal with their patients.
“The sanitation workers go to hazardous places with bare hands and zero safety equipment,” he continued. “Hundreds of them have contracted the virus and dozens have passed away. Yet, they are still being neglected.”
Bhatti urged the government to register over two million sanitation workers in the country to protect them from the debilitating respiratory disease.
The demand comes at a time when a large number of health workers remain skeptical toward the safety and efficacy of Sinopharm shots.
Dr. Faisal Sultan, who advises Prime Minister Imran Khan on public health, claimed in the beginning of the month that hospital employees in the country would get the vaccine within two to three weeks. However, only 52,768 had received the shots across Pakistan until Wednesday.
“Health workers are reluctant to get the vaccine since there are numerous questions about its efficacy and safety,” Dr. Qaisar Sajjad, secretary-general of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), told Arab News.
He said the PMA had already requested the government to vaccinate all staff members working at hospitals, including sanitation workers and administrative staff, but to no avail.
Sajjad said the government initially announced the Sinopharm vaccine was not recommended for people beyond 60, yet it was asking individuals over 65 to register for shots.
“There is a lot of confusion and mismanagement that is hampering the vaccination program,” he said.
Dr. Rana Muhammad Safdar, director-general health at the Ministry of National Health Services, said the government was doing its best to vaccinate all health workers in the first phase, while the remaining population would be covered in the next phase through official order.
“The janitorial staff at health facilities are viewed as healthcare workers,” he told Arab News without elaborating the vaccination plan for other sanitation workers across the country.