Amid surge in demand for COVID-19 vaccine, mainly driven by fears of the possible third wave of the pandemic, several designated vaccination centres in the district continued to grapple with short supply of COVID-19 vaccine doses.
The recent spike in COVID-19 cases particularly in the border mandals of the district, which reported high positivity rate in the entire State in the last fortnight, prompted the higher authorities of the health department to pay special attention on COVID-19 vaccination, the key arsenal in the fight against the pandemic.
However, the shortage of COVID-19 vaccine doses is proving to be an impediment in scaling up the vaccination drive to effectively tackle the pandemic.
The COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered at 15 designated sites against a total of 28 centres in the district on Saturday, sources in the health department said.
The vaccination centre at the RTA office premises here on Saturday witnessed a huge rush as people scrambled to get vaccines with many of them throwing the COVID-19 safety protocols to the winds.
In a statement, the District Medical and Health Officer B Malathi said the COVID-19 cases declined this month when compared to the previous three months and the positivity rate fell below 2%.
All should cooperate to prevent spread of rumours about COVID-19 on social media and unnecessary fears among people, she said, adding that the COVID-19 vaccination drive was underway as per the prescribed guidelines all over the district.
