Islamabad not close to herd immunity, about 36% eligible population vaccinated — DG health

People register to get a dose of the Covid-19 coronavirus Sinovac vaccine at a mass vaccination centre in Islamabad on June 3, 2021. (AFP/File)

• About 1.62 million people have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine in Islamabad, though many of them are not the city’s residents
• The DG health says the authorities must not lower their guard until they fully vaccinate at least 90 percent of Islamabad’s population

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani health officials on Thursday denied claims that Islamabad was close to achieving herd immunity against COVID-19, pointing out that only 35.79 percent of the city’s eligible population had been fully vaccinated while herd immunity could only be reached when that figure was about 90 percent.
Local media reports claimed recently that Pakistan’s federal capital was heading toward herd immunity due to the pace of its mass vaccination campaign which was better than other parts of the country.
Herd immunity is a concept that refers to indirect protection from an infectious disease when people get vaccinated or contract and endure it in significantly large numbers.
According to the official data, a total of 1.62 million individuals, including people from other cities, had received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccines in Islamabad until Wednesday, though only 536,909 of them had been fully vaccinated.
Statistics reveal that Islamabad’s own eligible population for COVID-19 vaccination is about 1.5 million, while only 35.79 percent of them have received all of their vaccine doses.
“We need to fully vaccinate at least 90 percent of our eligible population to reach herd immunity,” Dr. Hasan Orooj, a Director General Health Services in Islamabad, told Arab News.
He described Islamabad’s vaccination data as “exaggerated,” pointing out that people from Rawalpindi and other adjoining areas, such as Chakwal and Jhelum, had also received jabs from the federal capital.
“The idea of any herd immunity in Islamabad at this stage should be strongly discouraged since this will only make the situation worse,” Orooj said. “People may get relaxed and stop getting the second dose.”
The health official said Islamabad was a gateway for people across the country who wanted to travel to Kashmir and northern areas. Besides, more than half a million people commuted to the federal capital daily from Rawalpindi for work.
The daily coronavirus positivity rate in Islamabad was 6.36 percent in the last 24 hours.
“We should not lower our guard until we fully vaccinate at least 90 percent of Islamabad’s population,” he continued.
The percentage of people who need to be vaccinated to reach herd immunity varies from one disease to another, according to the World Health Organization.
It maintains the proportion of the population that must be vaccinated against COVID-19 to reach herd immunity is yet not known, though it adds the research on the subject is currently underway.
Dr. Afshan Shahid, an epidemiologist at Lahore’s Services Institute of Medical Sciences, said that herd immunity for COVID-19 could be achieved with over 90 percent of the fully vaccinated population, though it would still be a challenge to keep that figure constant in a specific city or district.
“This immunity will dilute with frequent traveling of unvaccinated people and mixing of vaccinated individuals with the unvaccinated,” she told Arab News.
Shahid said the government should try to equally immunize as much of the country’s population as possible since focusing on any single city would be counterproductive.
“We can’t keep the vaccinated people in a city isolated from others,” she added.