Even as health minister C Vijayabaskar on Sunday said
Tamil Nadu had a stock of 8.8 lakh vaccine doses, several districts across the state reported shortage of shots amid a surge in cases. Incidentally, vaccinations on Sunday took a steep fall with just 25,670 people getting their shots compared to more than one lakh people on Saturday.
As Coimbatore hit a record high of 727 fresh Covid cases on a single day, the number of people who took the jab plummeted from 7,850 on Saturday to 918 on Sunday. In Madurai, special vaccination camps organised by various organisations and associations were cancelled on Sunday due to non-availability of vaccines.
Health authorities in Trichy managed to allot 2,000 doses of Covaxin to Mahatma Gandhi memorial government hospital (MGMGH), one urban primary health centre, and some private hospitals in the district on Sunday to meet the surge in demand.
There were some complaints of vaccine shortage from residents of Chennai's southern and western suburbs. A couple of private health centres in Chromepet sent back even those people who had got their appointments booked through the government's CoWin registration portal. A senior corporation official said they were trying to minimise wastage by opening new vials only when they were confident that all the 10 doses can be used. Once opened, the entire vial must be used within three or four hours or they will go waste.
The shortage of vaccines was more pronounced in Madurai, where some resident associations had jointly organised a vaccination camp on Sunday in a local marriage hall.
As many as 175 persons had registered and another 25 persons were expected to walk in on the day of the camp. But corporation authorities informed the organisers that they would not be able to provide the vaccine doses due to shortage.
In Coimbatore, though officials said that there were 9,550 vaccine shots available in the district, several residents said there were no vaccines in several vaccination centres.
In an indication of a huge demand for vaccines in the district, vaccine stocks in primary health centres dwindled from 11,900 doses a week ago to 1,800 doses on Sunday.
The situation was no different in neighbouring Tirupur, where several people who visited vaccination centres in Avinashi, Udumalpet and Palladam had to return disappointed due to unavailability of vaccine shots. “In a day or two we will get adequate stock of vaccines,” said Jagdish Kumar, deputy director of health services, Tirupur.