Corona: A 30-year-old woman from Islamabad was vaccinated

EPA

Samar Ahmed, a 30-year-old woman between the ages of 70 and over, was vaccinated at the PIMS Hospital in the federal capital Islamabad on Thursday.

It is thought that Samar may be a health worker who is being vaccinated on a priority basis with older citizens, but this is not the case.

So the question is, how did this happen?

Samar Ahmed is a pastry chef by profession and his mother is a doctor. Speaking to the BBC, she said her mother registered when the government asked her to register for the corona vaccine in February. "I thought I'd send my details too."

Meanwhile, Samar registered his data on the website of the National Information Technology Board (NITB). Shortly afterwards, Samar received a verification code from the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) at around 2.30 pm.

"It came as a surprise to me because my 60-year-old father is yet to register," Samar said. And I got the verification code. "

In the message received from NADRA, Samar was told that she could go to PIMS Hospital or a nearby vaccination center and get vaccinated.

But I still didn't get vaccinated because I thought I might have gotten the message by mistake. "

Two weeks later, Samar was reminded by his mother to go to the hospital once and see what the situation was. If the code is found then there must be something behind it.

Then, on March 18, Samar arrived at Pims Hospital with her mother at 8:15 in the morning. As soon as Pims was admitted to the hospital, he was asked to show the code he received on his mobile phone. Samar said that during this time he felt that he would be asked to return. "But on the contrary, not only was I asked to sit down with a token, but I was also vaccinated shortly afterwards."

When asked if they had any questions or asked for an ID card? So Samar said, "After getting the verification code, I was not asked anything." The hospital was overcrowded, so the first attempt by the staff was to get the codes received by the people and dismiss them as soon as possible.

"Once confirmed by NADRA, we need to vaccinate."

Now the same question was asked to Dr. Minhaj-ul-Siraj, the Joint Executive Director of PIMS Hospital, who explained that she could be a health care worker.

But when he was told that he was a 30-year-old pastry chef, he said, "Look, the codes that are being generated are happening after the verification of the identity card from NADRA." We have no role in this. Our job is to vaccinate anyone who has the code and has been certified by NADRA. So in that case, we can't ask for anyone else's age. "

In this regard, NADRA spokesperson Faiq Ali Chachar expressed surprise and said that so far he and his staff have not been able to register themselves. How can a 30-year-old woman be vaccinated?

He also said that if there is any such case, it will be investigated. And if that happened then they would have been mistaken for a health care worker on the website.

If we go a little further, the first consignment of Chinese vaccine arrived in Pakistan in January this year, after which in the first phase, the cyano form vaccine was administered free of cost to public health personnel such as doctors, nurses and hospital staff.

During this time, registration was done in two ways. On the one hand, registration could be done by sending an ID card number to 1166 to NADRA, while an additional portal was temporarily created by the National Information Technology Board (NITB) and its web link was shared. Was so that only NADRA would not be burdened.

Health workers could register themselves using this web link. Using the same link, Samar also registered himself in the 'Others' box. After which he received the code of NADRA.

Confirming the web link, Shabahat Ali Shah said, “NITB had created a temporary link at that time and it was created for the convenience of healthcare workers. But as this link was temporary, we closed it later and made it a link with NADRA so that registration could be done from one place.

On the other hand, the elderly who have been vaccinated have not yet been given vaccination cards to confirm it. Similarly, Samar has not yet received a vaccination card.

"I have been called back for a second dose 21 days after I was vaccinated," he said, adding that when the second dose was given, he would be given a vaccine card and said, "I have completed all the doses." '