In Pakistan’s largest city, immunization centers turn away citizens as vaccine stocks finish

People wait to get inoculated with a dose of Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination centre in Karachi on May 12, 2021. (AFP/File)

• Medical professionals criticize the government for setting up inoculation facilities without paying much attention to procurement and storage of vaccines
• Pakistan’s southern Sindh province says it is only left with 376,231 doses of different COVID-19 shots

KARACHI: Authorities in Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi have decided to provisionally shut down some immunization centers due to a shortage of coronavirus vaccines, provincial health officials confirmed while talking to Arab News on Thursday.
According to the official statistics, the country’s southern Sindh province is only left with 376,231 doses of various types of COVID-19 vaccines.
This is despite the fact that Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah inaugurated the province’s biggest vaccination facility at the Expo Center in Karachi last month to administer 20,000 more coronavirus shots on a daily basis.
“While we increased our capacity to inoculate more people by establishing such facilities, we could not ensure smooth supply of vaccines that could have helped us endure the pace of our immunization drive which will now be negatively impacted,” Dr. Qaiser Sajjad, general secretary of the Pakistan Medical Association, told Arab News.
He maintained that doctors were previously trying to persuade people to get themselves vaccinated, adding that many medical facilities in the country were now turning them back.
Sajjad maintained it was not just small immunization facilities that were finding it difficult to serve the public but also places like the Expo Center.
Dr. Anila Qureshi, a health official in Karachi’s district east who was suspended earlier this year for vaccinating the family of a former governor before their rightful turn, negated any vaccine shortage at the mega facility.
“Do you need to get vaccinated,” she asked. “We have COVID-19 shots.”
However, Dr. Sajjad insisted many citizens who recently visited the Expo Center had returned unvaccinated.
Mehar Khursheed, a Sindh health department spokesperson, admitted there was a vaccine shortage since the province was not getting sufficient doses from the federal government.
She shared official figures related to the number of remaining COVID-19 shots with Arab News, showing that Sindh was only left with 376,231 doses of Sinopharm (168,330), CanSino (37,768), SinoVac (91,816), AstraZeneca (62,487) and PakVac (15,830).
The province has so far administered 2,755,767 jabs, though 1,954,956 of them are first doses.
According to reports in the local media, authorities in Karachi have temporarily suspended vaccination centers at Korangi and Malir districts to ensure the availability of COVID-19 vaccines at the Expo Center.
Speaking to the media in Islamabad on Wednesday, Dr. Faisal Sultan, who advises Prime Minister Imran Khan on public health, said the vaccine shortage would be over by the end of the month since the government was doing the necessary procurement.
“People who are due to get their second shot should not be worried,” he continued. “The second dose can also be administered after a delay of about a week or so.”