LAHORE: To meet the targets set by the National Command and Operations Center (NCOC), the Punjab government has decided to launch a door-to-door coronavirus vaccination campaign from July 26 in Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Multan and Rawalpindi.

The decision was taken at a meeting jointly chaired by Punjab Chief Secretary Jawad Rafique Malik and provincial minister for health Dr Yasmin Rashid at the Civil Secretariat here on Saturday. Other senior officials also attended the meeting, according to a handout.

Dr Yasmin Rashid said the NCOC had set a target of vaccinating 40 per cent of the population over 18 years in Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Multan and 70 per cent of Rawalpindi population by Aug 14. She directed that the number of drive-through vaccination centres in Lahore be increased to facilitate more people.

She said vaccination and compliance with SOPs was the only solution to ward off coronavirus.

The chief secretary said the vaccination targets set by the NCOC would be achieved and mobile teams formed for door-to-door vaccination. He said the citizens should continue to follow the precautionary measures along with vaccination. He directed the administration and the police to extend full cooperation to the teams of the health department during the special campaign.

He also issued instructions to set up vaccination camps in the vicinity of all teaching hospitals.

Punjab Primary & Secondary Healthcare Department Secretary Sara Aslam briefed the meeting that the health department had prepared a micro plan for the special vaccination campaign and two mobile teams would work in each union council for door-to-door vaccination. She said 566 teams in Faisalabad, 224 in Gujranwala, 250 in Multan, 356 in Rawalpindi and 528 teams in Lahore would be formed to administer vaccines at doorsteps.

She said the process of administering vaccines at vaccination centres would continue as usual. The health department, she said, had focused on the major and high-risk cities of Punjab. Being the first city for reporting detla virus, Rawalpindi will be at the top among other districts where 70 per cent of the target population of 18 and above will be administered Covid vaccine, she said.

She further said the Delta virus cases were on the rise in Punjab. She said 446 new infections were reported during the last 24 hours in Punjab, the highest figure reported since the variant surfaced. Of the new cases, Lahore tested 291 people positive for the virus. The total number of the positive cases of the infection in Punjab reached 352,153, she said.

The health secretary added the infection claimed lives of 15 more patients during the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 10,924.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2021