Vaccine shortage continues to mar ‘jab for all’ drive

Rajkot/Surat/Vadodara: While the state government has issued targets for Covid-19 vaccinations to corporates and civic bodies, it seems ambitious drive has hit a rough patch. This has resulted in a severe demand-supply gap of vaccine vials across Gujarat, especially in the cities like Rajkot, Surat and Vadodara.
Civic authorities in these three cities have admitted to the short supply of vaccines against the demand. Also, some complained of more supply of Covaxin and less supply of Covishield vaccines which has led to chaos at many vaccination centres in Rajkot and Surat.
Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) on Monday did not get the vaccine stock on time, said health department sources. As a result many centres had to close down early as they ran over of vaccine shots.
According to RMC officials, they only have 10,000 Covaxin doses in stock. “Seven lakh people were administered first dose of Covishield, out of that nearly 1.50 lakh are now due to for the take second dose. People are getting reminder to take the second dose, but they can’t be given the shot as RMC is out of Covishield,” said a government health officer.
Against the target of 25,000 doses daily, only 8,000-12,000 people get inoculated due to non-availability of doses.
RMC commissioner Amit Arora said, “There is an issue of stock currently but it’s temporary. We got assurance from the government that supply will be normalised in a day or two.”
However, the sources claimed there has been mismanagement at a higher level as the officials did not take into account those due for the second dose.
The Diamond City on Monday administered 22,000 doses of vaccine at 100 centres against 12,000 on Sunday. The vaccine supply was limited so the health department of Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) continued vaccination from 100 centres out of the 230 in the past week.
“Walk-in for vaccination is continuing, but to avoid rush we are issuing a token. We need more doses of Covishield since the majority of people coming for the second dose now were given the first dose of it earlier,” said a health official. “I waited in line for over an hour but did not get the vaccine on Sunday. Today I stood in line for over two hours and was informed that the stock got over,” said Kirit Parmar (76), who was at the vaccination centre at T&TV High School.
While vaccination has gone down significantly in the Vadodara, there has been no shortage of vaccines for the first dose. The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) and the city police have had to work overtime to ensure people take vaccines. With few takers, the number of vaccination centres had to be reduced.
However, since the last couple of days, those looking for the second dose of Covishield have been sent back by some vaccination centres. Covaxin in being used widely in most vaccination centres. While Covishield is available, it can be found only at select centres.
An official said that out of around 13,000 vaccine doses being given to VMC, 4,000 to 4,500 were of Covishield. "The vaccine is available. We request those looking for the second dose of Covishield to check on the portal first before going to the vaccination centre," said medical officer (health) Dr Devesh Patel.