Pakistan: Fake vaccination entries, incorrect figures obstruct Punjab's COVID-19 vaccination drive

Punjab [Pakistan], February 13 (ANI): Vaccination drive against COVID-19 in Pakistan's Punjab province has been obstructed due to the involvement of provincial government officials in filling bogus vaccination forms to achieve the vaccination target, health department officials said.
"Pakistan's Punjab provincial government is obtaining voter lists for fake vaccination entries and presenting inaccurate total inoculation figures," Express Tribune quoted health officials as saying.
"The vaccination staff obtained voter identity card (ID) card numbers and filled out bogus vaccination forms to achieve the vaccination target," a health department official familiar with the matter said, reported The Express Tribune.
According to health department insiders acquainted with the situation, the vaccine campaign's overall outlook is bleak, with the Punjab government missing its aim of inoculating 70 million people by December 2021.
Dr Salman Kazmi, Central General Secretary of Young Doctors Association accused the provincial government saying, "a number of people have complained to the health department that they have not been vaccinated but the NADRA record already shows them as vaccinated."
"The mismanagement is such that the same person is getting two different doses of the vaccine," he said. The doctor further said that when people hear of such instances they get discouraged to take vaccines.
The mismanagement is not the only reason, but residents of the provincial capital complained that not getting vaccinated is not their fault as the Expo Vaccination Center was shut down.
"By the time I got off work and went to the Mayo Hospital, the vaccination time was already over. I cannot waste my time standing in long hospital queues," said Rajab, a resident of the Ravi Road area, reported the newspaper.
Currently, as per the provincial health department's record, nearly 52 per cent of the total population of Punjab has been vaccinated with the number of people who have taken one dose estimated to be at 67 million and fully vaccinated individuals at 49 million. (ANI)