Tag: covid vaccines

  • Khairpur health workers inject at least 150 police officers with expired vaccine

    Khairpur health workers inject at least 150 police officers with expired vaccine

    At least 150 officers of the Khairpur police department were injected with expired Covid-19 vaccines, confirmed by the Police Training Centre, reports Geo News.

    After the incident, an inquiry report stated that the date of expiry for the vaccine was December 2021, while the vaccine was administered on January 24.

    Four police officers out of 170 got sick due after getting an expired booster dose. Five health workers, including Dr Amar Lal were found responsible for the act.

    The inquiry report states that the incident took place due to the negligence of a storekeeper, a technician, a male nurse, and a vaccinator in Sukkur, and that action should be taken against those responsible.

  • Indian 85-year-old man says he got 12 Covid vaccine shots, still wants more

    Indian 85-year-old man says he got 12 Covid vaccine shots, still wants more

    An 85-year-old retired postman from the northern Indian state of Bihar received his first dose on February 13 at a local clinic, and he hasn’t stopped since.

    In an interview with New York Times, he said, “I felt that it was helping my general health. My backache has improved, my general weakness improved, and my appetite improved. I still want more.”

    Mandal used his national identity and his mobile number card for 9 shots out of 12. After that, he used his voting card and the mobile numbers of his wife and his friends.

    He admitted that each time he registered for a new jab he told the staff lie that he had not received any dose before.

    However, his claim has not yet been confirmed but media reports suggested that Bihar’s vaccination numbers are likely inaccurate. The manual registration process might be the cause of this.

    According to the newspaper, there is no indication that the immune system with 12 shots brings any real benefits.

  • ‘Omicron shouldn’t be categorised as mild’: WHO

    ‘Omicron shouldn’t be categorised as mild’: WHO

    The infectious virus Omicron is a less severe disease than the globally dominant Delta strain, but should not be categorised as “mild”, WHO Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus clarified.

    While giving the statement in Geneva, he said that just like previous variants, Omicron is hospitalising and killing people, reports Reuters.

    Janet Diaz, WHO lead on clinical management said that when Omicron was first detected, early studies showed that there was a reduced risk of hospitalisation.

    According to her, the impact on the elderly is one of the big unanswered questions about the new variant as most of the cases studied so far have been in younger people.

    Currently, healthcare systems are overwhelmed, and governments are struggling to deal with the new variant which has killed millions of people worldwide.

    The vaccine process is quite slow in many countries. According to Ghebreyesus, 109 countries will miss the WHO’s target for 70 per cent of the world’s population to be fully vaccinated by July.

    Pakistan recorded 1293 cases on Friday and the positivity rate stands at 2.52 per cent.

  • ‘No lockdown for now,’ says NCOC chief despite rising cases

    ‘No lockdown for now,’ says NCOC chief despite rising cases

    The National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) chief Asad Umar said that the government has no intentions of imposing a coronavirus lockdown for now in the country.

    According to Geo News, Asad highlighted that instead of lockdowns, the government is focusing on ramping up vaccinations and strict implementation of the bans placed earlier on certain activities if one is not vaccinated.

    50 per cent of the cases in Sindh are of Omicron and the statistics show that the city’s positivity ratio reached 9.23 per cent on Wednesday.

    Jinnah Sindh Medical University (JSMU) Acting Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Shahid Rasul said, “Coronavirus cases of the Omicron variant are going up in Karachi because of a lack of vaccinations.”

    Meanwhile, Pakistan’s coronavirus positivity ratio exceeded 2 per cent for the first time since October 14 last year, as 1,085 new infections were detected.

  • Another deadly Covid variant identified in Pakistan

    Another deadly Covid variant identified in Pakistan

    The health authorities announced that another variant of the deadly Covid virus has reached Pakistan, reports Dawn.

    Talking to the media outlet, Member Scientific Task Force on Covid-19 Dr Javed Akram said a fatal variant of the virus called ‘Epsilon’ had been detected in the country.

    He confirmed that around 40 patients had contracted the variant so far, however, the figure is not accurate.

    “This variant had originated in California, which was why it was called the California strain or B.1.429,” Dr Akram added.

    “We need to understand that the virus has been controlled but not eradicated, therefore, there are chances of it bouncing back,” said Dr Akram.

    Talking about the vaccines’ efficiency, Dr Akram, who is also the vice-chancellor of the University of Health Sciences (UHS), stated, “The positive side is that all vaccines are effective against Epsilon, therefore people should get immunised and adhere to the standard operating procedures.”

    The Japanese government provided equipment worth 6.59 million dollars to Islamabad through the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for enhancing Pakistan’s capacity for Covid vaccine storage.

    According to the statistics shared by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 662 covid cases were recorded in the last 24 hours and the current positivity rate is 1.40 per cent.