Indore: The fast-paced vaccination drive in the city has been hit by the shortage hurdle due to which the department had to decrease the target for Thursday. Shortage of the ‘elixir’ is looming in the city and officials are not sure whether people will get the shot on Saturday or not.
“We are facing a shortage of vaccines now and the doses left with us were used for running the drive on Thursday. We had to decrease the target from over 50,000 to 26,000 and now no doses are left in the stock,” District immunisation officer Dr Pravin Jadia said.
He added that they have informed the officials about the shortage and will start the drive on Saturday only when we receive the doses.
“It is expected that we will receive doses on Friday but the amount of doses is not clear. We will open the sites for the second dose only as we are shifting our focus on full vaccination of people who have completed the required gap between both the doses,” Dr Jadia added.
Over 15.5 lakh doses administered
Immunisation officer Dr Tarun Gupta said, “We have administered over 15.5 lakh doses in the city which is highest across the state. Out of these doses, over 13 lakh doses were with the first dose while over 2.27 lakh were the second dose.”
He also informed that they have over 48 per cent of the targeted population with at least one dose of vaccine.
“Over 36 per cent of the people between 18 and 44 years have also been vaccinated with the first dose of the vaccine. We are also focusing on the second dose of vaccination as well and will increase sites for the same as well,” Dr Gupta said.
Will call and message those ‘missing’ their second dose
Concerned over incomplete vaccination of the health care workers and frontline workers, health department officials have decided to send a reminder to those who have not taken their second dose yet.
“About 79 per cent of health care workers and 58 per cent of frontline workers have taken the second dose but still a large number of people are left. We will send reminders to them through call or sms and will motivate them to get fully vaccinated,” Dr Jadia said.