Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 26

A large number of beneficiaries are facing difficult times due to the shortage of vaccines. They go to the designated centres for inoculation but have to return disappointed due to non-availability of the doses. Many are being made to wander from place to place for vaccination.

Raghav Bhardwaj, a resident of Putlighar area, has been searching online daily for availability of the vaccine for his parents and for himself for the past nearly a month, but success seems to elude him.

Perturbed over this, he decided to visit some vaccination centres in the hope that he would find the vaccine but he had to return empty handed. He was to get the first dose of the vaccine. The same is the story of Baldev Singh who came for vaccination at the Radha Soami Satsang Beas centre on Mall Road. He said he had visited the centre several times for vaccination but failed to get the jab.

Many people visiting different vaccination centres made by the district administration were returning empty handed.

The centres were witnessing a shortage of vaccines as governments miserably failed to provide the same. Wishing not to be named, a doctor at a satellite hospital located in the posh locality here said for the past two days they have not received a single dose of the vaccine. According to him, on an average around 400-500 people of both groups (above 45 years and between 18-44 years) visit centres seeking vaccination. However, not all of them got vaccinated. "We get only limited stock of vaccination and that too was not regular," he added.

A sewadar at the Radha Soami centre said health authorities should inform in advance about the number of doses being allotted to the centre. At least this would save people harassment. We would issue tokens as per the availability of the doses. Recently, the rush at the vaccination centres has witnessed an increase out of panic with high number of causalities being reported and surge in the novel Covid cases.

The people visiting the centres pointed out that the government is endorsing vaccination, but it has miserably failed to provide the same to the vaccination centres. Civil Surgeon Dr Charanjit Singh could not be contacted despite repeated attempts