16 held for making fake vaccination entries

LAHORE:The authorities concerned are taking action against the officials involved in fake entries of corona vaccination, arresting 16 persons and registering 12 cases in eight cities so far.

The cities are: Lahore, Sialkot, Vehari, Rahimyar Khan, Lodhran , Faisalabad, Chiniot and Multan. These details were given during a briefing at a meeting chaired by Punjab Chief Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal at Civil Secretariat here on Friday. The meeting reviewed the corona pandemic situation, medical facilities in hospitals and pace of vaccination. The chief secretary said the vaccination campaign was a national cause and those who registered fake vaccination data did not deserve any leniency.

He directed the divisional commissioners to play their role in achieving the national goal by meeting the vaccination targets. He mentioned that in extraordinary circumstances officers have to work harder.

Asking the officers to create awareness about important and efficacy of corona vaccination, the chief secretary said that the only way to ward off corona was vaccination and implementation of the SOPs. He said that it was evident from the data that vaccine was highly effective against corona and that 79 percent of hospitalised patients were unvaccinated. He said that the government was well aware of the economic losses caused by the corona pandemic.

He said restrictions would be relaxed in the light of the NCOC guidelines for business activities. He told the meeting that average more than 517,000 people were being vaccinated daily across the province. He said that there was ample stock of vaccine in the province and vaccination of people between the ages from 15 and 17 years had been started as per the guidelines of NCOC. So far, first dose of the vaccine has been given to 31.6 million people in the province while both doses have been administered to 11 million people, he said. The health secretary said the rate of positive cases of corona in three cities, Lahore, Sargodha and Muzaffargarh was more than eight percent at present. The meeting was attended by information secretary, CCPO Lahore and senior civil and military officers while all the divisional commissioners participated in it through video link.