Gujarat: More slots for 18-44 group

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani on Sunday announced that the slots for 18-44 years category would be increased to 1 lakh for one week – May 24 to 30 – from the existing 30,000.
Sources close to the development said that the decision is taken to address the spread of the pandemic among the working population. The daily average of vaccination in this category is about 30,000, they added.
From the start of the vaccination drive for the category, there were widespread complaints of not getting slots for vaccination. The officials said that the initiative is so far limited to the 10 districts and municipal corporations where concentration of the cases is the highest.
For the past four days, the trend of the vaccination has got changed, said experts. With the gap of at least three months between two shots of Covishield – the vaccine used in 90% of inoculation in the state – there is a major drop in second shot vaccination. In comparison, the shots for the first dose have increased by over 50%, they added. Senior officials were not available for comment on whether the distribution of shots would affect the ongoing vaccination for 45+ year citizens.