Pakistan opens first drive-through COVID-19 vaccination center in Lahore

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has opened the first drive-through COVID-19 vaccination center in its eastern city of Lahore to facilitate people who want to benefit from the country’s immunization campaign without going through much hassle.
The facility, which is described as the first in South Asia, was inaugurated at Qaddafi Stadium on Tuesday to administer about 1,000 doses per day.
The South Asian nation has procured 14.06 million doses of various coronavirus vaccines until now and administered 10.2 million shots since February when it launched its immunization drive.
“This drive-through facility has been opened to facilitate members of the public in a way that they can get the jabs at their own convenience,” Deputy Commissioner (DC) Lahore Mudassir Riaz Malik told Arab News on Thursday. “We hope it will help us achieve our vaccination target.”
Malik said the district administration had adopted a sectorial approach to vaccinate maximum number of people in the shortest possible duration.
“We are urging all communities and professionals like doctors, engineers and businessmen to participate in the vaccination campaign and help it succeed,” he said.
Malik continued that people approaching the facility could easily get the shots in 15 to 20 minutes, adding that this time included their computer registration, vital checking and inoculation.
He said the beneficiaries were then asked to wait for 20 minutes in the spacious parking area of the cricket stadium and monitored for any side effects.
The Lahore district administration plans to inoculate at least eight million residents of the city in the next six months and has so far administered 1.2 million doses.
Meanwhile, the Punjab government has increased the number of vaccination centers to 677 in the province to expand the immunization drive to rural areas. The government has also designated one vaccination center in each district that would remain operational for 24 hours.
The federal government on Wednesday approved $1.1 billion in funding to purchase the COVID-19 vaccination from the international market. The country aims to inoculate between 45 million and 65 million people by the year end.
The government has also made the coronavirus vaccine mandatory for all public and private sector employees, though it wants all public servants to be fully vaccinated by June 30.
“We request the people to get the vaccine as quickly as possible so we can lift virus restrictions and revive economic activities,” the DC Lahore added.