‘Nationwide Covid-19 vaccination campaign kick starts in 5 days’

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has launched a nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive and pledged to administer the Covid-19 vaccine to 4.8 million people and the measles vaccine to 6.9 million children, an official said.

Addressing World Immunization Week Public Health Minister Dr. Qalandar Ebad inaugurated a nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive and said: “We mark the World Immunization Week at a time when Afghanistan is facing threat from measles, diarrhea, polio, Covid-19 and other pandemics.”

He said Covid-19 was the deadliest disease and brought the world, including Afghanistan, to the brink of disaster. According to facts and figures over 182,000 people had suffered from respiratory disease in which over 7,000 had died.

He said these figures could not be trusted due to the lack of facilities to determine the Covid-19 virus in parts of the country.

According to Dr. Ebad, the Covid-19 vaccination drive would kick off in parts of the country soon and would continue for one month.

“We could protect our people from deadliest diseases such as polio, TB, Covid-19, measles and other epidemic diseases by administering the quality vaccine,” he said.

This year only one polio case had been registered, adding that the ministry had launched effective vaccination drives to eliminate the polio virus in the country completely.

The minister said, last year they vaccinated millions of newborn babies with the support of GAVI, WHO and UNICEF.

He said in Afghanistan all vaccines, including Covid-19 vaccines, have been approved by the world health organization.

He said in the past five months 48069 positive measles cases had been registered in which 209 patients had died.

Acting Prime Minister Aide Mawlavi Abdul Salaam Hanafi said: “We support every vaccine that ensured the protection and well-being of the people, we support all personnel that administered vaccines in every part of Afghanistan and asks all Mujahideen, Ulema and everyone to ensure their security.”

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