Healthcare workers told to get vaccinated.

Byline: Kalbe Ali

ISLAMABAD -- After receiving his first dose of Sinopharm vaccine on Monday, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan urged healthcare workers and all those eligible to come forward and get themselves vaccinated.

'I would again request healthcare workers and all those eligible to get vaccinated for your own protection, for the protection of your family, friends and all around you,' Dr Sultan said while talking to media after getting his dose.

Dispelling the impression prevailing among healthcare workers that senior officials were not being administered the Covid-19 vaccine, Dr Faisal Sultan, who was inoculated at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), said he received the jab not as a special assistant but in the capacity of a doctor.

He said as per the decision of the National Command Operation Centre (NCOC) on Feb 20 that all healthcare workers were eligible for vaccination, being a licensed medical practitioner, he was eligible.

Doctors and other health workers were being administered the vaccine in government hospitals but there was a general perception in Islamabad's Pims and Polyclinic hospitals that those in authority were not volunteering for it.

'I would lead by example by doing so,' Dr Sultan said.

He also responded to the hearsay that the vaccines had serious side effects.

'I want to make it clear that all registered vaccines have 90 per cent prevention from serious side effects, and the other basic quality of all the vaccines registered globally is that they prevent Covid-19 infection,' he said, adding that, 'therefore please get yourself vaccinated and do not take...