Vax stock almost over, jabs for 18-44 may stop for two days

Gurgaon: The city is left with just 2,093 Covid-19 vaccine doses for people in the 18-44 age group. If a fresh consignment of doses doesn’t arrive by Tuesday, the 37 government session sites that are carrying out vaccinations for this age group will have to stop the drive. At present, only two private hospitals — Max and Fortis — are giving Covid jabs. All other inoculations are happening at government centres.
So far, only 28,236 people in this age group have been inoculated in the city, translating into a daily average that is below 3,000. The city has a target of vaccinating 10 lakh peopke with two doses in this population group .
According to a senior official from the Haryana health department, the state is likely to get a fresh consignment of Covaxin for the 18-plus category by Wednesday. “Gurgaon will get vaccine doses by Wednesday evening or Thursday morning. We are also expecting to get three lakh doses of Covishield for Haryana for this age group by the weekend,” the official said.
Meanwhile, on Monday, 4,836 people in the 18-plus age group were vaccinated in Gurgaon. The Gurgaon health department said they might have to close down vaccinations for this category on Wednesday and Thursday. “We are likely to exhaust all our stock of vaccines for this category on Tuesday. We might not plan session sites for the next two days if we don’t receive a fresh consignment. We have already informed the state government,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, Gurgaon.
He also said private hospitals will conduct session sites on their own. “We aren’t providing them vaccine doses. If they have stocks, they can carry out vaccinations,” he added.
A total of 7,732 people in the 45-plus age group also got vaccinated on Monday at 41 session sites in Gurgaon. As many as 124 healthcare workers and 169 frontline workers also got the jab.
While private hospitals are allowed to hold vaccination camps at workplaces and residential societies, they aren’t carrying out large-scale inoculations because of an unavailability of vaccines. “We are unable to carry mass vaccinations as the supply is low at present. We will carry out workplace camps once we get adequate doses,” said an official from a leading private hospital.