Assam runs out of vaccine amid rise in Covid cases in country

GUWAHATI: Assam’s Covid vaccine stock is depleted, as the last consignment of 30,000 doses with March 31 expiry date that arrived in December last year, ran out last month, an official of the health and family welfare said on Tuesday.
As of Tuesday, there are no Covid vaccines anywhere in the state, even as a surge in Covid infection has set alarm bells ringing in several states across the country, he added.
Sources said the state health and family welfare department has not ordered new vaccine doses for adults citing “no demand” from the districts, despite the fact that only 16% of the eligible population of the state has been inoculated with the booster or precaution dose so far. The health department’s last Covid vaccine proposal, sent to the Union health ministry in February, seeking 50,000 Corbevax for children are also yet to be allocated by the Centre, the source added.
“In Assam, vaccine stock has become nil from April 1 after the last consignment ran out. This stock arrived in the state in December last year,” a senior official of the health department told TOI.
He said there had been little demand for vaccines in the state since January and the reason for this lethargy shown by the citizens was attributed to the “Covid-free” situation in the state.
Assam has two active Covid cases as on Tuesday.
After a lull of four months, Covid resurfaced in the state last month with the detection of a couple of cases in the later half. Even as the state government has found it to be a Herculean task to increase the booster-shot inoculated population from around 13%, recorded in December, for both second and precaution doses, it’s a stagnant situation. “Awareness campaigns failed to bring people to vaccination centres and none of these are now operational,” the source added.
For adults, the health department has not placed any demand for booster shots after the last order was placed in November.
Of the state’s projected population of 3.57 crore, the state government had set a target of inoculating 2.38 crore eligible people. Official figures stated that 95% of the targeted population has been inoculated with the first dose, while the second dose has been administered to 86%.