The announcement, made by Planning Minister Asad Umar after the NCOC meeting on Thursday, that all age groups would be eligible for covid-19 vaccines after Eidul Fitr, would be welcome were it not for the sneaking suspicion that it did not have vaccines behind it. The purpose of the announcement would be to show that the government was doing something about an inexorable spread of a third wave that seemed to be the worst of all. Also, it would make a gesture towards the criticism that it has been drawing for its poor performance on the vaccine rollout, which has seen it having by far the lowest proportion of vaccinated people in the entire region. Among other consequences, this has led to the UK imposing arrival restrictions on those arriving from Pakistan.
Perhaps the main reason for this poor performance is the government’s inability to obtain enough vaccine doses. The government has now got a month in which to prepare for the inevitable increase in vaccine demand now that it has made this announcement. However, with it being estimated that the present pace of vaccination will result in the meeting of targets only in 2024, it seems that the country is heading towards the sort of defective performance that has marred its approach to polio eradication, which has not yet happened.
Another problem that the government seems to suffer is its reluctance to impose the sort of isolation measures that a lockdown represents. The Prime Minister has once again ruled it out, thus meaning that even the vigorous vaccination planned after Eid will not have the desired effect. Social distancing and vaccinations must go together, and are not substitutes for each other. The government should realise that half-hearted measures are actually worse than no measures, for while neither yields the desired results, half-measures cost money. Therefore, it should not focus on appearing to be busy, but should actually do something. It must make sure that it imposes the social distancing needed; otherwise it will find that its vaccination programme, inadequate as it might be, will go to waste.
