Rani Andaleeb, Rafiullah, Ali Afzaal and Abdul Sattar Mohamand

People are again showing lack of interest in the ongoing vaccination for the Covid-19. According to health officials, rumors about Covid-19 vaccination as well as the non-payment of health professional allowance to the health staff as main reasons behind the lackluster responds to the vaccination.

Amna Khatoon, a resident of Murshidabad area of provincial capital told TNN that many people still believed the Covid-19 vaccination as a conspiracy. She said that this was one of the main reasons of lack of interest in vaccination.

She said that earlier government was threatening people with the travel restrictions and non-payment of salaries over not getting Covid-19 jabs, which led to the increase in the number of people getting the vaccines.

Ms Khatoon said that this since government was not pushing people for vaccination which has again led to increasing rumors.

Manahil, another woman said that many people contracted Covid-19 even after being fully vaccinated. She said that due to this many people were not interesting in getting the booster dose.

Besides, she said that the last wave was also losing steam and due to this people were also taking the illness less seriously. “Unfortunately, people here think of getting the jab after contracting the virus,” she said.

Ms Manahil said that some women she knew had issues with their menstrual cycle after getting the Covid-19 vaccine. She said that fearing about they might be able to give birth to children, they stopped taking the vaccine.

On the other, hand, similar lack of interest could also been seen in Kurram district Imdad Hussain, a local said that many rumors were going around regarding the vaccines.

However, he said that it was only vaccination could save people from serious illness.

On the other hand, in Mardan district, vaccination teams are working to inoculate people against the Covid-19.

Tahira Syed, a lady health worker from Bamokhel told TNN that they were not facing any issue in vaccinating people. She said that government has provided them with face masks, sanitizers etc; however, they were not getting health professional allowance.

District health officer Swat Dr Saleem Khan said that they have vaccinated 2.1 million people of the district out of a total of 2.5 million.

Dr Khan said that number of vaccinated people jumped after they started vaccinating the over 12 years old children.

He said that a total of 1.2 million people have received first dose of vaccine, while over 800,000 have received both doses of the vaccine.

Regarding the vaccination of the women, he said that they do not have definite figures. However, he added that teams of lady health workers have achieved their vaccination targets.

Dr Khan said that the Covid-19 will become endemic and will continue morph with the passage of time. “The virus could only be fought with vaccination and following the SOPs,” he said.

However, he admitted that the department was facing problems in vaccinating entire population. He said that they have vaccinated 85 per cent of the population.

“The remaining 15 per cent mostly lived in the remote areas and were not coming to health centers,” he said.

Dr Khan said that health department staffs have paid fares and other additional expenses incurred during the vaccination driver from their pockets. However, he added it was not possible for them to go to remote areas on their own expenses.

“Government should ensure payment of health professional allowance to health workers so that they can vaccinate highest number of people,” he added.

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