Technical glitch mars inaugural day of vaccination for 12-14 group

At several other centres, very few beneficiaries in the age group turned up. For instance at Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) largest Kamala Nehru Hospital, not a single dose could be administered despite sufficient number of vials.

Authorities at the hospital said two-three persons had come to the premises with their children in the morning but had to be sent back as the session for vaccination had not been created on the CoWin portal by then.

In Pune city, around 60 children were administered the vaccine, Dr Suryakant Deokar, city immunisation officer, said. “We have taken down names and mobile numbers of the parents who accompanied their children and have informed them to come on Thursday as the sessions have been created and the CoWin app is now functional,” he added.

Dr Sanjay Deshmukh, assistant director, health, Pune circle, which includes Pune, Satara and Solapur, admitted there was a delay and hence few vaccinations were conducted on the inaugural day of the nationwide rollout of Corbevax vaccine for the 12-14 age group.

Of the 963 children administered the vaccine doses in Pune, 843 were from rural areas.

There are 5.92 lakh beneficiaries in the 12-14 age group in Pune of which 32 per cent are from the city, 21 per cent from Pimpri-Chinchwad and 47 per cent from rural areas. A total of 1.2 lakh doses of Corbevax vaccine have been sent to Pune for the inoculation process.