Towards Herd Immunity by Vaccinating

MERF COVID-19 vaccine campaign hits its stride in Peshawar District

MERF has shifted into high gear, administered 50,000 doses across capital city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A busy morning spent at a field vaccination camp at motorway exit at Peshawar city find out what we are battling against COVID-19 looks like on the ground. Two outreach workers tapped patient details into the National Immunization Management System (NIMS) and making registration slip confirming which vaccine was due, which dose.

Blue-gloved vaccinators one man and one woman serving as frontline defenders to combat Covid 19 measured liquid quantities from vials into syringes under steady, appraising gazes and delivered them into uncovered upper arms as patients flinched, just a little. Notes were made in registers, vaccinees guided into observation corner. The next person was called in, then the next. “A great system is working here”, said Hazrat Sher, the In-charge of Motorway Vaccination Camps both at entry and exit on this location. “We came daily as a mission to immune our people against the worst health crisis of time – the pandemic of Covid 19 and after receiving vaccination vials every morning in cold chain from Department of Health (DoH) Office we start advocate people to get the vaccine who are entering from all over the country.”

Through the generous funding from International Medical Corps (IMC) and FedEx with support from KP provincial government MERF is contributing to create herd immunity in the capital of province. Over 50000 people are vaccinated under this program in communities, Covid 19 Vaccination Center (CVC), educational institutions and other locations including super crowded bus terminals in district.

About first jab of Sinopharm vaccine, Asad Khan, aged just 26, a local university under graduate studying for higher degree, shared his experience about getting vaccine. “When we came to know how important to get vaccinated even for our old parents that if we got infected in university and transferred virus to them”. Government has already barred students to attend university if they are not vaccinated. “We not only save ourself from this deadly disease but also care for others around us”, he realized.

MERF has outreached communities across Peshawar district through the program and estimated target of one hundred thousand people through this timely intervention under the mission to vaccinate Pakistan against Covid 19.