Yasmin opens new COVID-19 vaccination centre

LAHORE: Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid inaugurated a new corona vaccination centre at Patiala House here on Saturday.

Present on the occasion were Deputy Commissioner Lahore, Rana Asif, Mian Nadeem Chaudhry, Abdul Ghafoor Papu, Ali Amir, officials and notables.

The Health Minister reviewed vaccination arrangements at the centre and expressed her satisfaction. Deputy Commissioner Lahore apprised the Minister of anti-dengue and corona prevention activities. The locals of the area thanked the Health Minister for free facilities in the area.

The Health Minister said, “We are trying to vaccinate maximum people through Reach Every Door (RED) campaign. We will try to make RED corona vaccination campaign a big success as per the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan. By December the Universal Health Coverage shall be extended to all 29.3 million families of Punjab.

We want to do away with lockdowns through vaccination of the majority of the population. Corona pandemic has caused big losses to the economy. Prime Minister Imran Khan is taking necessary measures to provide relief to people and he will provide Ehsas Cards and Kissan Cards to people.

Today, officials of the Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Department shall visit hospitals to monitor dengue treatment facilities and officers of the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department shall monitor dengue prevention activities. So far we have hired 46000 healthcare workers on merit. Mass vaccination shall help us control the pandemic and we are personally monitoring Reach Every Door campaign. The vaccination target set for RED campaign shall be achieved.”

Meanwhile, with the special efforts of Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Imran Sikandar Baloch, the province-wide vaccination campaign is successfully moving towards its goals. Special SOPs have been issued for various sectors in view of the growing situation in Corona across the province. A new record of vaccination across Punjab, a record number of vaccinations are being carried out on a daily basis. It is imperative that all people over the age of 12 should be vaccinated immediately. There are currently a total of 636 vaccination centers in operation. Vaccination campaign is successfully underway at all vaccination centers across the province.

Vaccination campaign is successfully underway at all vaccination centers across the province. During the last 24 hours 158 new cases were reported from across the province. So far, the total number of cases has reached 440,013. Besides, 419,735 patients have fully recovered in the whole province, bringing the total number of active cases to 7,336 till date. In recent 24 hours, 6 deaths have been reported in Punjab, while total number of deaths has reached 12,912. During the last 24 hours, 16,013 tests are conducted making a total of 7,880,670 tests.

During last 24 hours, 85 positive Covid-19 cases have been reported in Lahore, 14 in Faisalabad, 12 in Gujrat, 9 in Rawalpindi, 8 in Multan, 6 in Sargodah, 5 in Sahiwal, 4 in Mianwali and 3 in Khanewal.

Yesterday, the overall positive rate of Covid-19 was recorded at 1.0 per cent in all the cities of the province, while Lahore recorded a positive rate of 2.4 percent, 2.0 percent in Faisalabad, 0.5 percent in Rawalpindi, 1.0 percent in Multan and 0.2 percent in Gujranwala.

While talking about ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive, Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department said that, “Frequently increase corona case in Punjab is a matter of concern. In such epidemic conditions, vaccination is the only and effective treatment against corona.”

He further added, “It is pleasant that a large number of citizens are increasingly participating in the vaccination campaign - there is no shortage of vaccinations anywhere in the province. There is ample stock of vaccines at all centers while for the future more vaccines have been ordered to meet the needs.

We have launched RED (Reach Every Door) vaccination campaign, the purpose of which is to target far reach and remote areas of the province to get more citizens vaccinated. “Citizens are urged to immediately vaccinate all people over the age of 12 and ensure implementation of SOPs so that we can return to normal life.”