Elderly endure queues, crowds for second COVID vaccine dose in Telangana

HYDERABAD:  The sheer number of people due for their second shot of Covid-19 vaccine resulted in all government vaccine centres getting overcrowded on Saturday. Several centres saw serpentine queues, with the elderly waiting for their turn for the second doses.

A majority of the government centres had been given a very limited number of doses, as a result of which many had to return home disappointed though they were initially given tokens.

Up to May 15, nearly 4 lakh people are due for their second shot.

Apart from the shortage of doses, a major complaint of senior citizens was that there was no proper information provided on where the scarce Covaxin shots were available, forcing them to go from one centre to another in search of it.

“Those who have received Covaxin have no other choice but to keep hopping from one centre to another. The government should make the info available for their benefit,” tweeted a citizen.

The issues with the Cowin portal have aggravated the situation.

Several elderly people who went for their second shot said since details of their first shot were not updated on the portal, they had become ineligible for the second shot. 

A netizen with the user name Ram on twitter, addressing Telangana’s Health officials, tweeted that though his father had got the first dose of Covaxin on March 26, on Saturday, it wasn’t reflected in the Cowin app.

Due to this, his father had to return home without getting the second shot of the vaccine.