Officials asked to expedite Covid-19 vaccination

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakht-unkhwa Chief Secretary Dr Shehzad Bangash on Friday directed the officials of Health and other departments to expedite the coronavirus vaccination drive.

An official handout said the chief secretary instructed the officials at a meeting in the Civil Secretariat about the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination campaign.

Muhammad Tahir Orakzai, Secretary Health, Fahad Mohmand, Focal Person for NCOC, Director General Health Services Dr Niaz Muhammad and other senior officials attended the meeting.

At the meeting, the chief secretary was briefed about the ongoing corona vaccination campaign by Health Department.

Secretary Health Tahir Orakzai told the meeting that government employees had been vaccinated across the province. He said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government coped with the major challenges including corona pandemic and polio, where all government and semi-government institutions were fighting against various challenges with the cooperation of people in vaccination drives.

On this occasion, the director general Health informed the participants of the meeting that vaccination of three million citizens would be completed by December.

Chief Secretary Dr Shehzad Bangash said the coronavirus vaccination should be expedited. He said vaccination of children and students above 12 years of age was the priority of the government and district administrations should take steps to speed up vaccination.

He said that access to various facilities should be made conditional with vaccination certificates, under “obligatory corona vaccination regime.” He urged the district officers to co-operate with the Health department for the success of the vaccination campaign.

The chief secretary said that vaccination campaigns should be intensified in educational institutions and legal action should be taken against institutions that refused vaccination.

He said the deployment of District Health Officers would be on performance basis, adding that a plan of action should be prepared for the areas affected by the corona pandemic.