Vaccination drive stalls as stocks dry up in Bihar

PATNA: While the state is witnessing a rise in Covid-19 cases, vaccination has virtually come to a standstill due to the shortage of vaccine vials. Sources said vaccination drive has totally stopped in Bihar as even the limited stock of Covaxin dried up in the last week of March.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar had said on Friday that the state government has urged the Centre to provide vaccine vials so that the vaccination could be carried out. As per the data available on CoWIN portal, not a single Covid vaccine dose was administered in any of the 38 districts in Bihar on Saturday.

Health department secretary Sanjay Kumar Singh said vaccination continued in the state till March-end, but the stocks of vaccine vials have been exhausted. "We wrote to the Centre in this regard in the beginning of March. We have also urged the Centre to provide us Corbevax vaccine as this can be given as a booster dose to anyone.
Singh admitted that most people in the state were reluctant to take the precautionary dose as Covid cases showed a declining trend across the country.
The reluctance towards vaccination led to the closure of 24X7 vaccination sites in November last year year. Care India programme manager Mansoon Mohanty said these centres running from Guru Nanak Bhawan, Polytechnic and Patliputra Sports Complex in Patna were closed as the footfall came down to nearly 100 per day.