At least 16 officials have been arrested for involvement in fake entries of Coronavirus vaccines in eight districts of Punjab.
In a meeting on Friday at the Civil Secretariat, Punjab Chief Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal was informed of the arrests and the fact that action was taken in Sialkot, Vehari, Rahim Yar Khan, Lodhran, Lahore, Faisalabad, Chiniot and Multan districts where 12 officials were arrested in as many cases. The meeting also reviewed the medical facilities in hospitals and the pace of vaccination amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The meeting was attended by secretary information, special secretary Specialized Health, Lahore Capital City Police Officer and senior civil and military officials as well as the divisional commissioners through video link.
Addressing the participants of the meeting, Punjab Chief Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal remarked that the vaccination campaign was a national cause and those who registered fake vaccines did not deserve any leniency. He also directed the divisional commissioners to play their role in achieving the national goal of vaccinating as many people as possible.
Furthermore, the chief secretary also called upon the relevant officers to raise awareness about the importance and efficacy of vaccines saying that the only way to ward off the coronavirus was the vaccination and implementation of SOPs.
He stated that it was evident from the data that vaccines were highly effective against coronavirus and that 79 percent of hospitalized patients were unvaccinated. He said that the condition of patients who get one dose of vaccine was relevantly better than those who did not.
Moreover, he stated that the government was aware of the economic losses caused by coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown restrictions would be relaxed in the light of the National Command Operation Center (NCOC) guidelines to facilitate the business activities in the country.
Meanwhile, the primary health secretary briefed the meeting that an average of more than 517,000 people were being vaccinated on daily basis across the province. He said that there was ample stock of vaccines in the province and vaccination of people between the ages of 15 to 17 years had kicked off.
The primary health secretary further said that the positivity rate of coronavirus cases in Lahore, Sargodha and Muzaffargarh was currently more than eight percent.
