16 officials arrested for making fake entries of Covid vaccine in Punjab

The actions were taken in cities of Sialkot, Vehari, Rahim Yar Khan, Lodhran, Lahore, Faisalabad, Chiniot and Multan.

The details emerged at the briefing during a meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Punjab Kamran Ali Afzal at the Civil Secretariat here on Friday.

The meeting reviewed the corona pandemic, medical facilities in hospitals and pace of vaccination.

The Chief Secretary said the vaccination campaign is a national cause and those who register fake vaccines do 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 to perform their duties.

Asking the officers to raise awareness about important and efficacy of vaccine, the Chief Secretary said that the only solution to ward off corona is the vaccination and implementation of SOPs.

He said that it is evident from the data the vaccine was highly effective against corona and that 79 percent of hospitalized patients were unvaccinated.

He said that the condition of patients who get one dose is even better than that of those who did not. He said that the government was well aware of the economic losses caused by corona pandemic and for business activities restrictions would be relaxed in the light of the NCOC guidelines.

The Secretary Primary Health briefed the meeting that an average of more than 517,000 people are being vaccinated daily across the province.

He said that there is ample stock of vaccine in the province and vaccination of people between the ages of 15 to 17 years has been started as per the guidelines of NCOC.

So far, the 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 Secretary Primary Health said that the rate of positive cases of corona in three cities Lahore, Sargodha and Muzaffargarh is more than eight percent at present.

The Secretary Information, Special Secretary Specialized Health, CCPO Lahore and senior civil and military officials attended the meeting while all the divisional commissioners participated through video link.