The government on Sunday denied reports on social media that elderly citizens could walk into Lahore's Expo Centre to get vaccinated against the coronavirus without an appointment.

Officials stressed that registered citizens must wait to receive a pin code via SMS before proceeding to their assigned vaccination centre.

The confusion was caused by a message that was widely shared on social media on Saturday — three days after Pakistan rolled out vaccination for people aged 60 years or older. The text quoted staff at Expo Centre Lahore as saying that "anyone over 60 can walk in with an ID card and get vaccinated without waiting for the SMS code".

The message led many people to believe they or their elderly family members could get vaccinated at the Expo Centre quickly, as the third wave of the coronavirus gains a foothold in the country.

Responding to such reports, Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Secretary retired Capt Usman Younis tweeted on Sunday that "while it is true that we don’t return people and we also provide walk-in [inoculation service] if one spouse is scheduled & the other isn’t, we process people as per [the] schedule and if everyone starts turning up on their own, it will delay the ones in line. Please wait for the message."

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan's focal person on digital media Dr Arslan Khalid termed the viral message "fake".

"[There] is absolutely no reality to it and please don't forward this fake message," he tweeted.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Younis stressed that the vaccine would be administered only to registered persons after they received the code through SMS, and after the verification of their code at the vaccination centre.

"Vaccination on the basis of the pin code through proper registration will save both time and resources," the health secretary said.

He urged citizens not to pay heed to "rumours spreading about the vaccine" and arrive at vaccination centres with their pin codes.

When approached by Dawn, Younis explained that although vaccinations were being administered as per the decided order, in a few cases, officials made an exemption and vaccinated an elderly person whose spouse had registered for the vaccine but they themselves had not. This was done out of "goodwill" to facilitate the elderly citizens but did not apply to the general public, Younis added.

He also said citizens' requests to have their parents vaccinated at home could not be accommodated at this time, adding that his own parents were given the vaccine at the government's vaccination centre.

A woman on Twitter said her mother had been vaccinated at Lahore Expo Centre even though she did not have a code.

Responding to her, Azhar Mashwani, the focal person on digital media to the Punjab chief minister, said: "We are not returning anyone but it's not advisable."

More than 7,500 vaccinated

Meanwhile, according to Younis's statement, as many as 7,582 people above the age of 60 have been vaccinated across Punjab.

A total of 88,974 registered health workers have been given the first dose, while 15,177 have received the second dose as well.

The mass rollout of vaccine comes as Punjab on Sunday reported more than 1,600 Covid-19 cases for the first time since June 2020, with the third wave of the virus intensifying in the country.

Data from the government's coronavirus portal showed that 1,653 new infections were detected in the province in the last 24 hours, marking the fifth straight day Punjab recorded more than 1,000 cases.

Amid the rising cases, the provincial government has imposed a lockdown in seven high-burdened cities, restricting the movement of the people to their homes, while "all commercial activities, establishments, markets and areas throughout the province of Punjab shall be closed by 6pm."