E-Paper
Punjab defers inoculation for 18+, Haryana to start drive today
The Punjab government on Friday deferred the inoculation for 18-45 years category due to “non-availability” of the vaccine
The Punjab government on Friday deferred the inoculation for 18-45 years category due to “non-availability” of the vaccine. However, Haryana’s home and health minister Anil Vij told PTI that the vaccination for the 18-plus category in the state will start from Saturday.
Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh made it clear that “due to non-availability of vaccine, Phase III of vaccination for the 18-45 age group cannot be started as scheduled”. He also said all vaccinations at private health facilities will remain suspended from Saturday.
Amarinder said as the balance of unutilised vaccines had to be returned to the government of India by all private health facilities by Friday evening, these facilities will have no vaccines to administer from Friday for 45+ population, while they could not vaccinate 18-45 age group as they had no supplies for the same.
According to an official statement, Singh said his government was pursuing the matter of vaccine shortage with the Centre, as the situation was critical. “The state had received two-lakh doses but that was not sufficient even to meet the two days’ requirement of the 45+ age group,” said Singh, while reviewing the Covid vaccine situation at a virtual meeting.
However, Anil Vij said, “We have got the message from the SII and more vaccines are reaching us. The rollout for the 18-45 year category will start tomorrow as scheduled”. Vij further said Haryana has sought 40 lakh doses from the SII and 26 lakh from Bharat Biotech, the manufacturer of Covaxin. “We will get these in phases,” he said. However, Haryana is still to receive the vaccine meant for 18-plus category.
Punjab officials said in the meeting that an order for procurement of 30 lakh doses of Covishield for the age group of 18-45 years was placed with the SII on April 26, only to be told that the availability of vaccine will be known in four weeks. A senior Punjab health department official said, “In the video-conferencing with the Centre, we were told that Serum Institute of India (SII) will supply 3-lakh doses, from the bookings made by the state, in May only. However, we are writing to the SII to be specific with the dates so that we can start the drive for 18-plus category.”
Further, the SII had asked the Punjab government to indicate demand for the next three-four months, with advance payments to be made. They had informed the government that supplies would be delivered in a phased manner, every month, the statement said. (With inputs from PTI)
