600 coronavirus vaccine doses reportedly go missing from Lahore's Jinnah Hospital

• Hospital administration inoculated friends, relatives with missing doses, say sources.
• Health department summons records following reported disappearance of the vaccines.
• MS Jinnah Hospital says there was a problem in compiling the record of the vaccines.

As many as 600 coronavirus vaccine doses stored at Lahore's Jinnah Hospital have reportedly gone missing, sources in the medical facility said Friday.

The hospital administration has inoculated friends and relatives with the missing doses, sources said, adding the record of the jabs is not in the medical facility's database.

The province's health department has summoned the records following the reported disappearance of the vaccines. Health Minister Yasmin Rashid said a complete record of the vaccination would be compiled, and strict action would be taken against irregularities — if found.

In this regard, the medical superintendent of Jinnah Hospital said there was a problem in compiling the record of the vaccines as some doctors did not make entries after being inoculated. 

"Following completion of registration, it can be determined how any many doses went missing," the hospital's MS said.

Meanwhile, Chairman Jinnah Hospital Management Board Gohar Ijaz said all relevant records of vaccines are available, adding that paramedical staff was vaccinated on merit, and audits are being conducted on a daily basis.

A day earlier, sources at the health department had revealed some 550 vaccine doses had reportedly gone missing from Lahore's Services Hospital.

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

The missing vaccines have been administered to important personalities, bureaucrats, and their friends, sources at the health department had 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.