The delegation of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance comprising of Ms. Alexa Reynolds, Senior Program Manager and Mr. Mario Jimenez, Program Manager) visited Pakistan from August 2nd - 9th, 2021. The delegation met with the health leadership including Dr. Faisal Sultan, SAPM, Dr. Shehzad Baig, NEOC Coordinator, Dr. Muhammad Akram Shah, Natioanl Program Manager, Federal EPI and Dr. Yasmine Rashid, Provincial Minister of Punjab for Primary & Secondary Healthcare and many other important stakeholders during their visit.
The objective of the mission was to identify country needs in terms of immunization and to provide maximum support in future for the provision of vaccine through COVAX and to enhance the capacity of cold chain. The mission also discussed future portfolio planning which would be particularly focusing on the immunization services, universal health coverage and health system strengthening in Pakistan.
We are here to provide the maximum support to uplift the state of immunization in Pakistan said, Ms. Alexa Reynolds, during her meeting with the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister. She further added, we anticipate that COVAX will aim to provide enough doses to vaccinate approximately 45 million people or more in Pakistan, through a combination of free doses and dose-sharing. She mentioned, that Pakistan will likely enter Gavi’s “Accelerated Transition” phase before 2025, making this Pakistan’s last 5-year period of Gavi support.
She further said, we also look forward to the synergy between EPI and PEI in the future as we hope that such development will bring the positive outcome for strengthening the health system.
We highly appreciate the cooperation and support of Gavi for strengthening the health system and providing maximum support in the provision of vaccine in the country, said, Dr. Faisal Sultan, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health during his meeting with the mission delegation. We really look forward to our future collaboration and all the initiatives that help us to further enhance our system and capacities to uplift the state of immunization in Pakistan, he added. We are really grateful for all financial support for the future and we are very positive about this future collaboration to achieve our immunization goals.
While closing the meeting, Dr. Muhammad Akram Shah, National Program Manager thanked the delegation members for their week-long visit to Pakistan to better understand the current state of immunization and the challenges.
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