Sindh Decides To Defer Its Plan To Import Vaccines While Center Increases Supply

In recent news, the government of Sindh has decided to halt its plan for importing vaccines, as the center has announced that it will be increasing supplies to the province. Another reason why the government went on with delaying the import of vaccines is the several unsolved issues between the federal and provincial governments, which were important to complete the process. 

Sources revealed that the government of Sindh had planned to purchase the single-dose vaccine, which has been produced by CanSino Biologics Inc. Officials had also set aside funds for this very purpose. An official further went on to cite a couple of issues, in lieu of the current status of the plan devised by the government. 

According to the official, the federal government is going to be importing large quantities of the coronavirus vaccine from various sources and has not disclosed the prices. He revealed that the Sindh government had requested the center to import vaccines on its behalf but, had not received an encouraging response. 

He went on to say that the supplies of coronavirus vaccine to the province had increased from the center over the last few weeks. This had brought some stability at the administrative level. He informed that the situation at designated centers for vaccination was much different than what had been witnessed nearly a month ago. 

In April of 2021, the government of Sindh had made an announcement saying that it would be importing CanSino, the single-dose vaccine, directly from the manufacturer, CanSino Biologics Inc. The government believed that this would bring about an improvement in the vaccination process and had, therefore, set aside Rs.500 million. The officials said that the funds are still available for use for this very purpose, according to the defined requirements. 

The official said that thousands of people have been receiving the jabs every day in the province of Sindh. He remarked that Sindh has increased the total number of vaccination centers. As of now, there are around 200 such facilities, which are operating throughout the province. 

In addition to regular vaccination centers set up across Sindh, a couple of 24-hour vaccination centers have been operating in the City of Lights. This includes the New Karachi Hospital, located in the district Central, and the Children’s Hospital. 

The Ojha Campus of the Dow University and Expo Center are also functional throughout the day in district East. Whereas the vaccination centers of Jinnah Hospital and Khaliq Dina Hall are operational round the clock in the Southern district. District West’s Government Qatar Hospital and the Murad Memon Hospital, located in district Malir, are working 24 hours a day to vaccinate individuals. 

In order to curb the spread of the deadly disease and its ultra-infectious variant, the Delta variant, he added that the country is working towards vaccinating the population. Where people are hesitating to get vaccinated, the official referred to the recommendations being made by health experts and doctors to initiate a complete lockdown. Experts have also stated that zero tolerance should be exhibited when it comes to restrictions of the coronavirus to save lives and contain constant outbreaks of the disease.