Vaccinations for 18-45 age group remain halted at govt centres

The vaccination for people in the 18-45 age group will continue to remain suspended on Tuesday due to the shortage of Covid-19 vaccine

The vaccination for people in the 18-45 age group will continue to remain suspended on Tuesday due to the shortage of Covid-19 vaccine. It has been almost a week now that the inoculation for people above 18 years has been halted at all government facilities.

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Health officials, however, said that the shortage of vaccine will now be resolved as Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Monday that the Centre will take back full responsibility of vaccination from states, and from June 21, the jab will be given to everyone above 18 years for free.

“The Gurugram health department did not receive any vaccine stock from the Haryana health department, for people in the 18-45 age group, for the past one week. However, private hospitals have started vaccination drives and are providing over 10,000 jabs to people above 18 years on a daily basis. Over 30,000 doses are available with the health department for people above 45, which is being inoculated at 37 government healthcare facilities,” said Dr MP Singh, district immunisation officer (DIO).

Drive likely to resume from June 10

According to senior health officials in Haryana, vaccination for people above 18 years is likely to resume from June 10, as the state is likely to get a vaccine stock.

Until now, state and private hospitals could procure almost 50% of the vaccine stock directly from the manufacturers, while 50% was supplied by the Centre. State-level data as of June 4 showed that 5,898,869 out of the 6,632,380 doses, allocated by the Centre and state governments, have been administered.

According to the health department data, 7,66,263 doses have been administered in Gurugram till now, of which, 12,482 doses were administered on Monday. Over 10,269 people in the 18-45 age group took the vaccine shots at private hospitals. About 1,243 people aged 45 years and above took their doses at government healthcare facilities, and 663 at private facilities. About 167 healthcare workers, and 140 frontline workers and their family members also took the jab on Monday.

A special jab drive for two days

The health department has also planned to conduct a special vaccination drive for people with disabilities, and thalassemia patients on Tuesday and Wednesday, despite the vaccine shortages. “We have been trying to cover the high-risk population group by holding a special vaccination drive in the past few days. At Rajiv Nagar, a camp will be set up for people with disabilities on Tuesday, and for thalassemia patients on Wednesday,” said DIO Singh.