Govt to form district task force for vaccination

Following the guidelines of the National Command and Operations Center (NCOC), the Punjab government has decided to set up a district task force to be headed by deputy commissioners to implement the strategy for speeding up coronavirus vaccination across the province.

The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Provincial Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid at the Civil Secretariat on Tuesday.

Each task force will include the district police officer, chief executive officer of the district health authority, representatives of the NCOC and Provincial Disaster Management Authority as members.

Similar task forces would also be formed at the tehsil level.

Addressing the meeting, Provincial Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid said all possible steps were being taken to speed up vaccination in the province. She said mobile vaccination teams would also be formed to meet the target set by the NCOC for daily vaccination.

The minister also issued instructions to the deputy commissioners of Lodhran, Hafizabad, Layyah, Muzaffargarh and Kasur to expedite the vaccination process in their respective areas. Speaking on the occasion, Punjab Chief Secretary said that the economic conditions were unable to afford repeated lockdowns and the control on the pandemic was possible only through vaccination of as many people as possible.

He said the rate of positive cases was also lower in the districts where more people had been inoculated. He said an awareness campaign be launched about the importance and usefulness of getting vaccinated. He directed the deputy commissioners to ensure the availability of an adequate quantity of vaccines and the best arrangements at all the vaccination centres for the convenience of the citizens.

He said as per the guidelines of NCOC, to increase the capacity of daily vaccination, the health department would set targets for each district in terms of population and performance in this regard would be regularly reviewed.

Primary Health Secretary Sara Aslam informed the meeting that more than 167,000 people were vaccinated in the province on Monday. She said that the NCOC had set a target for Punjab province to have the capacity to vaccinate 420,000 people daily by the end of June.

Home Department officials informed the meeting that markets, bus stands, restaurants and marriage halls were being inspected for implementation of SOPs in the province and 29 restaurants were sealed for violations.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2021.