Karnataka to face Covid-19 vaccine shortage for 2 days: Here's why

Widening of time gap between Covishield’s first dose and second dose will help, Health Secretary Jawaid Akhtar said

Karnataka is currently facing vaccine shortage with many primary health centres (PHCs) in the state having run out of stock while a few districts having stock that could last for one or two days.

Health Secretary Jawaid Akhtar has said this shortage will be there for two days and that requests for additional supplies has already been made to the Centre. In a meeting with all district health officers on Sunday, Akhtar instructed them to redistribute vials from PHCs that have stock to those where stocks have dried up.

Ballari District Immunisation Officer Dr Anil Kumar said, “We already distributed the 8,000 doses, which is enough for Tuesday. From Wednesday, we will have no doses left. The government said it would take two days to supply. There are as many as 113 centres and there are PHCs that have suspended vaccination due to want of stock.”

The story of Kolar district is no different. Immunisation Officer Dr Vijayakumari M said the district has run out of stock. “We can vaccinate people only till tomorrow (Tuesday). Everyday we need a minimum of 7,500 doses at least and we don’t even have that quantity for Tuesday. The government said it will send 4,200 doses but that is not enough to meet our daily requirement,” she said.

Speaking to DH, Jawaid Akhtar, Additional Chief Secretary, Health, said, “Vaccine shortage will be there for two days. We have already requested the Government of India for supplies and they have also allocated. We are waiting for the consignments to come. Right now, the districts have been instructed to shift vaccines from centres where consumption is less to the places where the requirement is more. Locally, we have asked them to manage.”

“We have not received any tentative date on when the next tranche will be sent. We are pressing for early supplies,” he said. State has so far received 37 lakh doses of vaccine.

Widening of the time gap between Covishield’s first dose and second dose from four weeks to eight weeks, as allowed by the Centre on Monday, will help as this will enable the state to prioritise the first dose, he said.

Dr Janardhan HL, District Immunisation Officer, Hassan, said, "We will run out of stock tomorrow (Tuesday), and have already redistributed stock. Out of 82,000 doses received from January 15, we have vaccinated more than 65,000 at 129 vaccination sites. We have to rely on buffer stock that will be exhausted on Tuesday."