AMC vaccination programme derails for want of adequate quantity of vaccines

Aurangabad, May 6:

The jumbo vaccination programme undertaken by the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has been derailed due to an imbalance in the demand and supply of Covid-19 vaccines. Earlier, it was having a huge stock of vaccines, but the response from the citizens was low. Now, after awareness, the response from citizens is high, but the availability of vaccine in stock is inadequate. Against the registration of 500 persons on CoWIN app, it was able to vaccinate 100 persons only at each centre.

It may be noted that a huge rush of citizens of age 45 years and above rushed to the vaccination centres to take their second dose on Thursday. There was a registration of more than 500 persons, but the centres concluded the drive after giving vaccines to 100 persons only. The conflicts between the citizens and the health staff of centre were reported.

The AMC needs 1 lakh vaccines every week, but the supply is very inadequate. As a result, the vaccination drive got collapsed. The AMC got a stock of 9,550 vaccines for citizens of age 45 years and above. The stock was inadequate, therefore, the AMC reduced the number of centres from 115 to 50. Moreover, the AMC had made it clear that it is reserving the available stock of vaccines to give the second dose to citizens of age 45 years and above. The decision, however, made the citizens seeking the first dose angry.

The frequent change of vaccination centres had forced the citizens to suffer. The citizens grieved that they had taken the first dose at one centre, who had to run helter-skelter at various centres to take the second dose. There was no proper guidance in this regard. The experience was annoying and the senior citizens faced huge inconvenience due to the sultry weather in the city.

Second dose after 60 days

The municipal officer of health (MoH) Dr Neeta Padalkar said, " The stock of Covishield vaccines has finished and we are hoping for the fresh stock by Monday."

As per schedule, the persons who had taken the first dose of Covishield can take their second dose after a gap of 45 to 60 days. There are more than 11,000 citizens, who had completed 60 days and are struggling to get a second dose. The second dose of vaccine could be taken after 60 days also, said Dr Padalkar.

Incomplete info on CoWIN app

It is necessary to enrol on CoWIN app for taking the first dose of the vaccine, as per the Central Government guidelines. However, due to a huge response, the registration till May 28 has been completed. However, the citizens were pushed into confusion when they did not receive the details like the name of centre where they had to visit for the vaccination in the city.