Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The vaccination drive of teenagers between the ages of 15 and 18 years was badly hit in Indore due to a shortage of Covaxin. Surprisingly, no vaccination drive for teenagers was conducted in the city on Wednesday as the health department could afford to vaccinate teenagers only in rural areas.
Similarly, the drive for the precautionary dose was also hit due to a lack of availability of Covaxin as most of the frontline workers had taken the doses of Covaxin and, now, the shortage of the vaccine has brought fresh trouble for them.
Action against schools
The district administration has been taking action against schools which failed to achieve 100 percent first dose of vaccination for their students of ages between 15 and 18 years, while orders to stop the salaries of many frontline workers and healthcare workers have also been issued if they fail to take the precautionary dose.
On Wednesday, only 1,123 children of ages between 15 and 18 years had taken the first dose of vaccine, while only 2,816 teenagers of the same age group took the second dose of vaccine. Similarly, about 3,500 people had the precautionary dose on Wednesday.
Only 12,000 doses received on Wednesday
§ The vaccination drive will continue being hit on Thursday as the city received only 12,000 doses of Covaxin on Wednesday
§ With the shortage of vaccines, the health department has decreased the number of vaccination centres that had been opened for teenagers, too, and the drive will now run at only 37 centres
§ Similarly, the number of centres for administering Covaxin as a precautionary dose has also been decreased to 27 and only 100 doses will be allocated to each centre.
‘Covishield in good supply’
‘There’s a shortage of Covaxin from the state due to which the drive was hit. The department is focusing on vaccinating teenagers with the first dose on a priority basis while distributing vaccines to keep up the precautionary drive. There’s ample stock of Covishield and the drive for those requiring precautionary doses of Covishield will run smoothly’ — Health officials
‘Will receive 50,000 doses soon’
‘We’ve received some doses on Wednesday and will soon get over 50,000 doses. We’ve decreased the number of centres for Covaxin according to the availability of doses and it’ll be increased again after stocks are replenished. We have ample stock of Covishield vaccines and will continue to run the drive to vaccinate people with that vaccine’ — Dr BS Saitya, chief medical and health officer
