550 doses of coronavirus vaccine missing from Lahore hospital

• 550 doses of coronavirus vaccine gone missing from Lahore's Services Hospital, say sources in the provincial health department.
• Additional 350 doses of vaccine stored at Mozang Hospital have gone to waste.
• Provincial Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid says an audit of the vaccines is currently being carried out and a report will be released soon.

LAHORE: While millions of people are waiting for their turns to get inoculated against COVID-19 in the country free of charge, some 550 doses of the vaccine have reportedly gone missing from Lahore's Services Hospital, sources at the health department revealed Wednesday.

According to the sources, an additional 350 doses of coronavirus vaccines stored at the city's Government Mozang Teaching Hospital have "gone to waste", while no record could be found about the 550 missing doses. 

The missing vaccines have been administered to important personalities, bureaucrats, and their friends, sources at the health department said, adding that Federal Minister for Housing Tariq Bashir Cheema of the Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q), along with his wife, also received the COVID-19 jab from the missing doses. 

On the other hand, the principal of the Services Hospital says that the vaccines haven't disappeared but there has been an issue with the compilation of records. 

Provincial Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid maintains that the government is carrying out an audit of the vaccine doses and a report related to that will be submitted soon.

It should be noted that the medical superintendent of the Services Hospital has been suspended after the 350 doses of vaccine went to waste.

Per sources, the 350 doses of vaccine stored at the Mozang hospital had to be wasted because of the absence of an optimum temperature. 

The vaccines had to be stored at 2 to 8 degrees Centigrade, but hospital staffers kept them in the freezer which rendered them ineffective.