Karur residents urge govt to increase Covid vaccine doses

KARUR: Around thousands of people waiting to get vaccinated at Pasupatheeswarar Girls High School in Karur on Monday morning besieged the centre after they were announced that vaccines were out of stock. Several vaccination centres across the district witnessed a similar situation. Karur has been recognised as one of the most-affected districts for Covid-19 in Tamil Nadu after Coimbatore, Tiruppur, and Salem. Owing to spike in demand for vaccines over the last few weeks, people have requested to increase the allotment of doses to the district. 

On Monday morning, people formed serpentine queues with tokens to get vaccinated. However, soon, the drive was suspended and ‘out of stock’ boards were put up in front of the centres. “Last week, more than 1,000 people were waiting in long queues to get vaccinated. But only a few received the jab and others were given tokens. Today (Monday) the authorities have put up a notice informing that the vaccination is suspended until further notice. It left people disappointed. The officials are themselves unaware of the arrival of the next consignment of vaccines or its resumption,” said Vijay, a resident of Karur.

Speaking to TNIE, Deputy Director of Health Department Dr Santhosh Kumar, said, “As of now, vaccine stocks are not available in Karur district. We will be receiving the doses in the next few days. Once it arrives, we will resume the vaccination drive. Currently, we are not giving any tokens. It will be issued later to those who have waited but not got the jab on that particular day.” According to the latest reports, a total of 1,16,466 individuals in Karur district have been vaccinated and 1,06,724 people tested for Covid-19.