Punjab got off to a slow start on the first day of its free Covid vaccination drive for the 18-plus age group as compared to its counterparts. It administered jabs to 93,224 beneficiaries.
As many as 14,956 shots were given in Ludhiana district, followed by 12,969 in Jalandhar and 10,260 in Hoshiarpur. Mansa (535), Fazilka (986) and Sri Muktsar Sahib (1,171) were among the districts where the drive got a poor response despite ample availability.
The data procured from CoWIN website revealed that neighbouring Haryana administered over 4.7 lakh jabs on the day whereas Himachal inoculated 98,000 people and Uttrakhand over one lakh.
According to senior government officials involved in the drive, the state has enough stock of vaccines (3 lakh at present), but there was low response on the first day because they are carrying out targeted vaccination of a few categories in the initial days.
Punjab would get 7 lakh more jabs in the coming days from the allotted quota of 14 lakh as per the plans sent by the Centre to the states.
Principal health secretary Hussan Lal said the lukewarm response could be because at present the strategy of the department is to first give jabs to traders, shopkeepers, hotel industry staff, teachers, and other such categories that could be immediately affected by the unlocking process.
{{/usCountry}}Principal health secretary Hussan Lal said the lukewarm response could be because at present the strategy of the department is to first give jabs to traders, shopkeepers, hotel industry staff, teachers, and other such categories that could be immediately affected by the unlocking process.
{{/usCountry}}“The pace of vaccination is expected to rise in the next couple of days,” he said.
Till now, Punjab has crossed its one-lakh-jabs-a-day target only once on May 26 when 1,00,654 vaccines were administered.
The state has vaccinated 55,17,168 people out of which 8,66,907 have received two doses.