Covid-19: First dose vaccinations on hold again

The district health department will not be holding first dose vaccination drives on Monday due to a shortage of vaccines, officials said on Sunday, while second dose inoculations will be administered at 24 government-run session sites. However, officials said that 50 doses of Sputnik V, inoculation of which started on July 10, will be administered at the Sector 31 polyclinic

The district health department will not be holding first dose vaccination drives on Monday due to a shortage of vaccines, officials said on Sunday, while second dose inoculations will be administered at 24 government-run session sites. However, officials said that 50 doses of Sputnik V, inoculation of which started on July 10, will be administered at the Sector 31 polyclinic.

Over the past week, the pace of inoculation in the district declined due to the short supply of vaccines by the state health department. (Vipin Kumar/HT PHOTO)

Over the past week, the pace of inoculation in the district declined due to the short supply of vaccines by the state health department.

“Due to shortage of vaccines, only the second dose will be administered on Monday. At least 200 doses of Covaxin will be administered at five vaccination centres, each. This includes Huda City Centre Metro station. At the 19 other centres, nearly 100 Covishield jabs, each, will be made available. Also, at least 50 slots will be available for Sputnik V vaccine at Sector 31 polyclinic,” said Dr Virender Yadav, the chief medical officer for Gurugram.

According to the data available with the health department, between June 27 and July 3, over 61,559 doses were given as the first shot and 22, 334 as the second shot. This declined in the past week, as only 12,186 doses were administered as first shot and 14,995 as second shot between July 4 and July 10, with vaccinations not taking place on Sunday at the government health centres. About 3,940 vaccine doses were administered by private hospitals.

Rajeev Arora, the additional chief secretary of the health department, who was in the city on Saturday said that the state is currently prioritising second dose inoculation of front-line and healthcare workers as well as the elderly population.

Dr MP Singh, the district immunisation officer, said that the department has around 5,000 doses of Covishield and almost 10,000 doses of Covaxin.

So far, 1,557,966 vaccine shots have been administered in the district, according to the district health department data. As per the data available on the Co-WIN platform, 1,562, 971 doses have been given, of which 1,269, 545 were first doses and 293,426 were second doses.

Covid-19 cases decline

On Sunday, seven cases of the coronavirus infection were confirmed, taking the count of active patients in the district to 90. So far, 180,758 Covid-19 cases have been reported in the district since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020.

For the second consecutive day, zero Covid-19 deaths were reported. The death toll is currently at 919.

As per the district health bulletin, three critically ill patients are currently undergoing treatment at hospitals, while 87 patients are in home isolation. In the past week (July 4-11), 53 new cases were reported, a decline from the 62 cases reported the week before (June 25 to July 3). The test positivity rate, the proportion of positives out of the sample tested, is almost 0.1%.