Amit Bathla

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, June 12

The pace of vaccination has slowed down drastically in the district mainly due to the shortage of vaccine for the 18-44 age group, keeping those in the category exposed to the virus.

We hope that the availability of vaccines for the 18-44 age group will improve in the coming days. We received the fresh vaccine stock three days ago. - 

Dr Jasjeet Kaur, Chief Medical Officer

As many as 17,195 doses have been administered this month so far — an average of 1,432 doses each day. Compared to the last month, the daily vaccination count has come down by 937.

While 73,459 doses were administered in May, 76,081 doses were distributed in April.

Over 2.31 lakh doses have been administered in the district so far.

However, the Health Department is hopeful of receiving enough vaccines in the coming days to ramp up the inoculation drive in the district.

Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Jasjeet Kaur said they had a little stock for people in the 18-44 group, which led to a decline the daily vaccination figures.

“We hope that the availability of vaccines for the 18-44 age group will improve in the coming days. We received the fresh vaccine stock three days ago. With the arrival of vaccines, walk-in sites for 18-44 age group have also opened up,’’ she added.

The figures, too, suggested an improvement. At least 2,063 doses were administered today.

Centralised vaccine plan

As per health officials, the district has an adequate stock for 45-plus category.

“Once the centralised vaccination policy for those above 45 years comes into force on June 21, there will be an integrated vaccine distribution. It will address the vaccine shortage concerns,” they added.