ISLAMABAD, FEB 15 – Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar has said the process of registration of citizens aged sixty-five and above has been started for vaccination against COVID-19.
In a tweet on Monday, he said the registration can be done by sending CNIC number on 1166. He said the vaccination of this age group will start next month
Asad Umar says vaccinations for people in this age group will begin in March. Frontline health workers are being inoculated right now. The are being given the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine.
Here’s how to get the vaccine: Send your CNIC number to the Sehat Tahaffuz helpline 1166 through SMS or the NIMS website http://nims.nadra.gov.pk.
The system will verify your address and confirm registration and you will be sent details of your designated AVC along with a unique PIN code. If the designated AVC is outside your current tehsil, you can change it through the NIMS web portal or by calling 1166 helpline within five days of receiving the first SMS.
Once the vaccine arrives at your centre, you will be contacted for an appointment for vaccination. After confirmation and registration, you will have to take your original CNIC and PIN code to the centre on the appointed day.
Staff at the vaccination centre will verify your CNIC and PIN code. After verification, you will receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccine staff will enter your details in NIMS and a confirmation message will be sent to you through SMS.
You will have to remain at the AVC for 30 minutes for post-inoculation monitoring for any adverse effects. A dashboard will be created in real-time to update government health departments at the district, provincial and federal levels.
Pakistan will receive 17 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine through the Covax facility. Authorities in Pakistan have said that this might be the shot given to the elderly as the Sinopharm vaccine is currently not recommended for those over 65 years.
The first batch of seven million doses is expected before April, according to the UK government. “The next 10m doses will come later, likely before June,” adds UK government’s statement. “This will help protect 8.5m people from the virus, which has already claimed over 12,000 lives in Pakistan.”
