Govt fully responsible to vaccinate every citizen of country: Ali Muhammad

ISLAMABAD, May 27 (APP):Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan on Thursday informed the Senate that the government was fully responsible to vaccinate every citizen of the country.
Speaking during question hour in the House, the minister said 1.5 million people have been vaccinated so far and over all 3.2 million people partially or fully vaccinated in the country.
Ali Muhammad said the daily vaccination rate has reached one hundred thousand, adding that there is no shortage of ventilators or oxygenated beds across the country.
The minister assured the House that the government would get vaccinate the citizen of the country who don’t have identity cards.
To another question, the minister said resistance to broad-spectrum anti-biotics is being observed in Pakistan.
Ali Muhammad said Pakistan is amongst largest consumer of anti-biotic. as a result, there is an increasing resistance to even broad-spectrum anti-biotics.
The minister said the major causes included self-medication more than 51 percent of population, a large number of quacks who prescribe anti-biotics, availability of over-the-counter anti-biotics and inappropriate prescription of anti-biotics.
He said the government in collaboration with World Health Organization (WHO) and one health stakeholders including federal and provincial departments, has developed a National Action Plan (NAP) for Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR).
The minister said National AMR Strategic Framework has been developed in Pakistan with “One Health” approach. This framework has been developed through a consultative process and is in line with the five strategic objectives of the WHO Global Action Plan for AMR.
He said a PC-1 on AMR worth Rs. 361.9 million for a period of three years has also been approved and its implementation was under way.
Regarding the coronavirus, he said Pakistan is currently passing through a third wave of COVID-19 that started in the end of February 2021.
The minister said in response to the surge of cases, the ministry with direct support of the National Command and Control Center (NCOC), has been coordinating with all stakeholders at the federal and provincial levels and development partners to enhance the capacities of health systems including implementation of SOPs.
He said that government was also enhancing the COVID testing capacities across the public and the private sectors and acquisition of vaccines, establishing of adult vaccination centers across the country.
He said the ministry is continuously striving to further enhance its capacities across various sectors to be able to handle this pandemic efficiently; and be able to provide respectful-accessible-equity based on quality health services and non-health services to the people.