No Covid vaccines available, says GB Nagar health dept

Noida: The vaccine stock of Gautam Budh Nagar district health department diminished to zero on Monday, two days after the department had written to the Uttar Pradesh government for more vaccines

Noida: The vaccine stock of Gautam Budh Nagar district health department diminished to zero on Monday, two days after the department had written to the Uttar Pradesh government for more vaccines. As a result, there were zero doses of Covid-19 vaccines administered on Monday, according to official data.

Noida, India- December 23, 2022: A health worker collects a swab sample for Covid-19 test at the District Hospital in Sector 30, in Noida, India, on Friday, December 23, 2022. (Photo by Sunil Ghosh / Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

Chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Sunil Kumar Sharma said, “We wrote to the state health department on Saturday asking for more vaccine doses of Covishield and Covaxin”.

According to RK Singh, district immunisation officer, Gautam Budh Nagar is yet to receive new vaccine doses. “The vaccine stock has diminished to zero and none of the government vaccination centres are administering doses. We are expecting the doses this week. In the meantime, vaccination is being done at private centres,” he said.

Officials informed that since the last three weeks, vaccines were only being administered to the 15-18 age group in government vaccination centres, but since Monday, the vaccine slots for this age group have also been closed after stocks ran out.

According to official data, the district has set a target of 115,592 shots in the 15-18 age group. “We have achieved 94.76% of the total target in administering the first dose and 80.23% in the second dose,” said Dr Singh.

In the 12-15 age group, which is being administered Corbevax vaccine, the district has overachieved the targets in the first dose, but is far behind in achieving its target for the second dose.

“The district set a target of 69,814 doses and has achieved 112% in administering the first dose, while it is only 77.87 % for the second dose. We are not able to meet the target for the second dose because parents have not been completely supportive during the immunisation drive and the Covid-19 wave was over as well,” Dr Singh added.

However, data has shown a spike in the number of people turning up for precautionary doses at private clinics as government centres are closed due to lack of vaccines.

Earlier on Saturday, the Gautam Budh Nagar district health department passed directives to all officials to “make provisions to effectively control cases of infection and to provide proper arrangements to the infected patients”.

Meanwhile, district surveillance officer Dr Manoj Kushwaha informed that Gautam Budh Nagar has a total of three active cases on Monday. “All three active cases are under home isolation. The district has recorded 110,533 cases since the start of the pandemic in March 2020,” he said.

Officials said that any new samples testing positive for Covid-19 will be sent for genome sequencing. “The samples which are testing positive will be sent to Meerut for genome sequencing in order to find out the variant of the virus,” said Dr Amit Kumar, district public health expert.

Dr Kumar added that testing for Covid-19 has increased by over two-fold in the district in the last one week. “Till last week, around 200 samples were being tested for Covid-19. The number has increased to 450-500 since Friday,” he added.