Ludhiana: Even as the second wave of Covid-19 is at its peak and authorities are insisting that every eligible person should get inoculated, the district on Wednesday evening had vaccine stock for only one day. The health department claims to have written to the state government for more vaccines.
District immunization officer (DIO) Dr Puneet Juneja said they had vaccine doses for Thursday only as no new stock arrived. The DIO said that Wednesday’s sessions were being wound up so that the exact doses needed could be known in the evening. Health officials said though exact doses left would be known by late Wednesday evening, the number of vaccines required for Thursday’s sessions were around 5,000 to 6,000. They said most likely the district would have more stock of Covaxin for Thursday’s sessions as compared with Covishield.
Health officials said in urban areas, Covishield was being mostly used at four centres, including civil hospital, civil surgeon’s office, Vardhman mother and child hospital and urban community health centre at Jawaddi. At other centres, Covaxin was being given. They added that if the health department didn’t get stock by Thursday, it would be difficult to carry out vaccinations on Friday.
Sources in the state health department said the stock was expected to arrive in Chandigarh on Thursday and then sent to various districts. Health department officials said Ludhiana would get the highest number of doses due to high consumption in the district.
Meanwhile, health experts said inoculation must go on at a brisk pace. “As the number of cases are surging, vaccination is very important, apart from following Covid-appropriate behaviour. Government should send more vaccines so that maximum number of eligible persons can be protected,” said former president of Ludhiana Indian Medical Association (IMA) Dr Sunil Katyal. He suggested that the authorities should run vaccination campaigns on the pattern of polio, where drops were administered at doorsteps.