Only 39 of 100 turn up for Covaxin jab in Gurugram

Only 39 front-line healthcare workers of the targeted 100 in the city received Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin at the vaccination site in Palam Vihar on Saturday, according to health department officials. Also, those waiting to get inoculated at the site were unaware of a consent form to be signed for receiving the Covaxin jab and said that they were not informed of the vaccine allotted to them.

This accounted for only 6.4% of the 608, who received the inoculations on the day of the vaccine launch. The rest received Serum Institute’s Covishield.

The vaccination site set up at a private school in Palam Vihar by the health team of Chauma urban primary health centre had minimum footfall since morning. According to the vaccination officers deployed at the site, healthcare workers from three primary health centres — Chauma, Laxman Vihar and Rajeev Nagar — had been allotted the Palam Vihar site for vaccination.

“None of the health staff from Laxman Vihar, except for a senior medical officer, turned up for the vaccination. Most of them who got the inoculation had been from Chauma and a few from Rajeev Nagar. Only 39 people were inoculated throughout the day,” said a vaccination officer at the site.

When HT reached the site and interacted with the staff waiting for vaccination, they seemed unaware of the consent form that had to be signed for taking the Covaxin jab.

“We only know that a coronavirus vaccine will be injected. They haven’t told us the name of the vaccine,” said an anganwadi worker. During the inoculation, she seemed unaware of the second dose that had to be administered.

Dr MP Singh, district immunisation officer, said, “Due to delay in message delivery for vaccination, many workers did not reach the site timely.”