Lahore men booked for selling Astrazeneca vaccine

LAHORE : Police in the provincial capital have booked three staffers of the Expo Centre vaccination facility for selling AstraZeneca COVID vaccine to people travelling abroad.

Reports in local media suggest that the FIR was lodged by the centre in-charge Rana Naveed at the Nawab Town police station. The complainant alleged Rehan and Shahzaib to charge Rs4,000 as a bribe to administer Oxford’s AstraZeneca vaccine.

A case has been registered under sections relating to fraud and bribery. The FIR stated that the AstraZeneca vaccine was unavailable at the Expo Centre vaccination facility in the provincial capital.

Earlier, the authorities received a number of complaints from multiple vaccinations centres about the wastage of jabs and fake vaccination certificates. Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid formed a four-member committee to investigate corruption at immunisation centres across Punjab.

Many of the people also tried to forcibly enter vaccination centres amid vaccine shortages across the country.

Similar chaos had been witnessed at the Lahore Expo vaccination centre when people gathered there to get the jab and got angry over being kept waiting for a long time.

On the other hand, Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar said Saturday that the Moderna vaccine will help citizens intending to travel abroad for work and study to countries that are only accepting some specific Covid vaccines, Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar said Saturday.