Covid-19 vaccine shortage mars Jammu and Kashmir's vaccination drive

As Jammu and Kashmir recorded the highest single-day rise in new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, its vaccination campaign has been marred by shortages.

Official sources said that for the last few days, several government-designated Covid-19 vaccination centres across the union territory (UT) could not continue the drive as their stocks are empty.

Srinagar district, which is the hotspot of the Covid-19 in the UT, has been badly affected due to a shortage of vaccines as in over 80 centres the vaccination drive could not take place on Thursday. In the Jammu district, another hotspot, over 20 centres could not offer vaccination services, they said.

Also read — Covid-19: Fewer women than men get vaccinated in Kashmir

As J&K lacks enough doses to meet the growing demand, daily vaccination numbers have fallen, sources said. Most of the private vaccination centres in the UT have suspended the vaccination drive since May 1 after the government refused to provide vaccines and asked them to procure the same directly from the manufacturers.

An official of a private vaccination centre in Srinagar said that they were ready to procure the vaccine directly but the government should at least tell them whom to contact “as there is no stockist or any representative of the manufacturers of the Covaxin and Covishield in the UT.” “We receive dozens of calls from anxious people daily who want to get vaccinated, but since the last few days, we don’t have stocks. Some people who are reluctant to visit crowded government hospitals wanted to get the vaccine done at private centres, but we are unable to help them out,” he added.

Director Family Welfare, MCH and Immunization, Dr Salim-ur-Rehman admitted that there was a shortage of vaccines. “We are getting limited supply of vaccines due to which vaccination could not take place in some centres,” he said.

“We got 50,000 vaccines each day on Wednesday and Thursday. But if we distribute the vaccines equally among all the centres, none will get more than 20-30 doses,” Dr Rehman said.

He added that due to the high demand and low production, the manufacturers were not in a position to supply vaccines in bulk despite having placed orders for more doses.