Vaccination at Quetta hospital put off due to fake certificates

The Balochistan Health Department has stopped the vaccination of Covid-19 at the Civil Hospital Quetta after detecting irregularities in the registration process.

The Balochistan Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department ordered the Civil Hospital Quetta medical superintendent to suspend the vaccination process immediately.

Talking to The Express Tribune, a health department official said that the vaccination centre was sealed on the complaint of the people.

An official said that the staff of the centre was found making fake entries. After the incident, it has been decided that the registration of future vaccinators will be computerised which will be directly linked to NADRA like the rest of the country.

On the other hand, the closure of an important vaccination centre has increased the hardships of the local residents.

Read Vaccine fraud: Fake certificates put inoculation drive in jeopardy

They complained that staff at the hospital was not cooperating in uploading their record, so they could not obtain the NADRA vaccination certificate which has been declared necessary.

The health officials said that an investigation will be launched into the fake registration. They said that the vaccination process will be restarted in two days in the hospital.

It is worth mentioning here that a majority of the people try to get vaccination certificates through fake registration at the vaccination centres without actually getting the jabs. The staff deployed at the vaccination centres have turned it into a good opportunity to make money by helping people in this regard.

There are even reports that bogus NADRA certificates are being prepared across the country for a few hundred rupees and it has become a profitable business.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2021.