Federal Minister of Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Asad Umar has said that vaccination is the most efficient method of protection against the new coronavirus variety, Omicron, which has emerged in recent weeks. Umar, who also serves as the director general of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), warned that the Omicron variant would unavoidably make its way to Pakistan during a joint press conference in Islamabad with Adviser to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan, who was also in attendance.
The minister revealed that the National Cholera Outbreak Committee (NCOC) has reached certain conclusions about the extremely infectious new type that is spreading rapidly throughout the world. It is just a matter of weeks, according to him, for the government to control the Omicron menace.
“Effective measures to restrict the [spread of] new variety in Pakistan are being implemented, but vaccination remains the sole effective method of protection against Omicron,” Umar said.
Umar informed the media about the NCOC choices and said that the government will conduct a huge vaccination campaign throughout the country within two to three days of receiving the information.
“We will not be able to halt Omicron, but we can mitigate its impacts by taking preventative actions,” he said.
While discussing government preventative measures, the minister said that they were tightening limits for people arriving from other countries and increasing testing capacity in high-risk locations.
He advised people to be completely vaccinated against the coronavirus, which he described as “a deadly virus.”
A booster vaccine would be administered to those individuals at high risk of catching the virus, according to the ministry.
Sindh has made the administration of a booster dosage mandatory for persons who have received all of their vaccinations.
Following the discovery of the novel COVID-19 strain, the Government of Sindh has decided to make a booster dosage of the coronavirus vaccination mandatory, according to the Daily Jang newspaper published on Sunday.
The Sindh Health Department had previously declared that a booster dosage of the Pfizer vaccine will be offered to those who had already received their first dose.
Sindh Health Secretary Zulfiqar Ali Shah had previously said in the Daily Jang that the decision to offer a booster shot to persons who had been completely vaccinated had been taken in order to prevent the virus from spreading across the province.
Consignments of the vaccine are being imported specifically for this reason, he had previously said.
It was previously announced that “booster vaccinations are already being delivered at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and Dow University of Health Sciences Ojha Campus,” but that “the size of immunisation will be increased across the province.”
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