Vaccine shortage holds back Bihar’s daily target

Shortage of Covid-19 vaccines pulled back Bihar’s effort to administer 4

Shortage of Covid-19 vaccines pulled back Bihar’s effort to administer 4.54 lakh doses of vaccine daily to its target adult population of 7.22 crore, as the state could complete 100,004 vaccinations on Tuesday evening (6pm).

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The state vaccine depot in Patna exhausted its stockpile of over 1.81 lakh vaccine vials, which translated into 18.11 lakh doses, available between June 30 and July 5 after the state launched its vaccination mega drive on July 1.

Bihar would expect a lull in terms of vaccination even on Wednesday, as the next tranche of 959,220 doses of the Covishield vaccine is expected from Pune today (Wednesday) in the afternoon.

With no inventory left, the state health authorities had to shut down several vaccination session sites on Tuesday.

The 1,106 vaccination session sites functional on Tuesday were a little over one-third its targeted 3,000 static session sites the state health department wanted to be functional at least four days a week till December.

No vaccinations took place at Saharsa, Gopalganj and West Champaran, while Madhepura reported one and Khagaria six. Four other districts, Darbhanga (19), Rohtas (65), Kishanganj (71) and Jehanabad (30), reported double-digit vaccinations till 6pm on Tuesday.

Thirty-six of its 46 vaccination session sites were shut in state capital Patna due to unavailability of vaccines on Tuesday. A day before, 32 session sites were closed.

“Most of our session sites are closed today due to unavailability of vaccines. They will reopen as soon as we get vaccines,” said Dr SP Vinayak, district immunisation officer, Patna.

The state capital, he said, had been vaccinating an average daily 30,000 doses of vaccine against its capacity to administer 1 lakh doses.

“We have not been given any daily target due to uncertainty of vaccines. We have simply been told to exhaust vaccines by administering them to people in the shortest possible time after getting them,” said Dr Vinayak.

The Patna district administration hopes to saturate administering at least one dose of the vaccine to the eligible population in urban Patna this month itself.

“We have achieved 57% first dose vaccine coverage against a target population of 14.36 lakh in Patna urban,” said Dr Vinayak.

However, Patna’s rural coverage, like most other districts, has not been satisfactory. The first dose vaccine coverage was only 24% against its 29.12 lakh target population in rural Patna.

The 70-odd “Teeka Express” or mobile vaccine vans, plying in Patna, were inoculating 150-175 people on an average against its daily target of 200. The vaccination coverage through “Teeka Express” was less in rural areas as compared to urban areas, even as officials contended that the rural population was fast shedding their vaccine hesitancy.

For the next six months, Bihar has set itself a target to administer daily 4.54 lakh doses four days a week, barring Wednesday, Friday (reserved for routine immunisation) and Sunday.

It had administered 1,333,980 doses during the last five days since the launch of the vaccination mega drive on July 1. Another 100,004 doses were administered till 6pm on Tuesday, taking the cumulative vaccination doses to 1,74,76,123. Of this, 1,50,06,336 were first dose vaccinations and remaining 24,69,787 second dose.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar has set a goal to fully inoculate the state’s target population by December.