AMMAN— A campaign to
vaccinate healthcare workers against COVID-19 was launched, with an open call
to all medical sector staff to report to 26 medical centers across the Kingdom
for an inoculation dose.
اضافة اعلان
Muhammad Al-Kilani, chairman of the Committee for
Exercising Powers of the Physicians Syndicate, told Jordan News that “the campaign is late, but nonetheless
very important.”
The campaign comes almost two months after the
government launched its national inoculation campaign on January 13, even
though healthcare workers were among priority segments set by the government
for receiving the vaccine.
Mervat Hawwa, a surgeon working at Wadi Alseer
Health Center, told Jordan
News that being a frontline worker in the midst
of the pandemic without a vaccine was “anxiety-inducing and exhausting.”
“Unfortunately, we are losing people on a daily
basis. As the number of cases increased and and health centers became more and
more crowded, there was great fear amongst healthcare workers of contracting
the virus and infecting our friends and family,” Hawwa said.
“It was exhausting, physically and mentally,” She
added.
Nonetheless, the surgeon reported that she feels
quite optimistic about this campaign. She told Jordan News that the entire medical staff at the health
center volunteered to take part in the national vaccine rollout campaign.
As he waited in line to receive his vaccine
dose at Wadi Alseer Health Center, Saif Shobaki, a student of medicine told Jordan News “it’s a great feeling getting the vaccine
after such a hard scary time.”
The death toll among doctors reached 41 to date,
according to Kilani. As for infection cases, “they stopped counting after cases
hit 3000.”
Meanwhile, Pharmacists count 22 death cases among
their ranks, according to Zaid Al-Kilani, head of the Pharmacists Syndicate.
“It was necessary to start vaccinating people in
the health sector before anyone because it is the first line of defense. You
cannot send anyone to battle without weapons. But this is what happened in the
medical sector,” Khaled Rababaa, head of the Jordan Nurses and Midwives
Council, told Jordan News.
The nurses’ union counts 7 deaths among their
staff; 3 women and 4 men, he said.
Rababaa noted an “absence of a clear strategy”
when it came to managing the crisis and marketing the vaccine, citing the
persistent public concern regarding the vaccines.
Since it launched its national vaccination
campaign, 190,000 people have been inoculated with at least one dose, the
Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported last week.
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