Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 14

Vaccination drive to curb the spread of Covid-9 came down as only 830 people were vaccinated on Friday. Earlier, the daily average of inoculation in the district was around 8,000.

Apart from people with comorbidities, labourers registered with the Labour Department were given jabs. Out of 232 identified centres, only 21 were covering vaccination drive in the district. Insufficient inventory of the vaccine in the district was attributed to delay in arrival of stocks from the Central government. The Union government provides a Covishield vaccine which has not arrived for the past five days, stated sources in the Health Department.

The Health Department was utilising the stock given by the state government.

Despite a big gap in the demand-supply of the vaccine, the department will initiate the drive on Saturday to inoculate family members of the health care workers in the 18-44 age group.

ADC Himanshu Aggarwal, Additional Secretary Medical Education and Research and also Covid ICU Nodal Officer for Government Medical College, said people who came with comorbidity certificate were given jabs on Friday.

He said the district administration was keeping a tab on the inoculation drive and the surge in Covid positive cases. As per the norms issued by the government, micro containment zones were being announced where positive cases between five to 14 are being reported and containment zones where 15 and above cases were being quoted.

Meanwhile, the District Health Department today kicked off the drive and inoculated 251 persons with comorbidities.