Inoculation drive meets hurdles amidst Omicron wave

Rate of booster jabs has remained low despite new variant’s highly contagious nature

LAHORE:

Despite a raging Omicron variant wave, Punjab’s inoculation drive is in doldrums aided by vaccine hesitancy and accusations of high vaccination figures being inaccurate coming to the forefront.

Given the new variant’s highly contagious nature, residents of the country’s most populous province have thrown caution to the wind with masks entirely missing, public spaces crowded as usual, and an indifference to getting jabbed, which is aiding the spread of the virus - with the positivity rate currently at 5.6% in the entire province and 10.8% in its capital Lahore.

Apart from the upsurge in infections, the provincial government’s calls for citizens getting a booster dose have fallen on deaf ears as since the onset of the new wave only 1.7 million citizens have received one.

However, the overall outlook of the vaccination campaign is grim as well, according to health department sources familiar with the matter, with the Punjab government having missed its set target to inoculate 70 million people by December 2021.

Read: Stalled vaccine drive

Health department sources also informed The Express Tribune that in light of missed targets the provincial government has started obtaining voter lists at the Union Council level for fake vaccination entries and the present provincial inoculation numbers were inaccurate. “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 alleged, “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.”Piling on to the accusations, Dr Salman Kazmi, Central General Secretary of Young Doctors Association, accused that the provincial government’s lackluster performance had also aided vaccine hesitancy.

“The mismanagement is such that the same person is getting two different doses of the vaccine,” he said. Kazmi stated that administering two different vaccines could develop complications and therefore people get deterred when they hear such instances. Residents of the provincial capital, however, complain that not getting vaccinated is no fault of their own 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. Kashif, a resident from the Garhi Shahu area, while talking to The Express Tribune, said that his previous vaccination process was really smooth but with the Expo Center being closed he had immense difficulty getting a booster.

Read More: Covid-19 vaccination drive to start on Feb 1

“The staff at the Expo Center was very cooperative whereas getting jabbed at the hospital is a headache,” he lamented. Currently, as per the provincial health department’s record, nearly 52% 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.

With more than 490,000 active cases in the province, the provincial government to speed up the inoculation drive under the Reach-EveryDoor Vaccination Campaign has set a target of 25 million vaccinations. When inquired about the rising infection rate and accusation leveled against the department, the provincial Health Minister Dr Yasmeen Rashid, said that they were very vigilant with regards to bogus vaccination numbers and action is taken wherever such incidents are found.

“As soon as we get to know about such incidents, we take immediate action to make the vaccination process ambiguity free. Not only are all vaccination entries being made accurately, the inoculation drive in Punjab is also in full swing,” she told The Express Tribune.