Imbalance in demand and supply of vaccine irks AMC, citizens

Aurangabad, May 8:

The health personnel of Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) complained of facing hardship due to an imbalance in the demand and supply of the Covid-19 vaccines. Against the demand of 15,000 vaccines daily, the civic administration has to satisfy with the stock of 1,000 to 2,000 injections.

The vaccination drive for citizens above 18 to 44 years got started on May 1, but there is a regular shortage of vaccine supply. The AMC could give vaccines to 1100-1200 persons only. The supply of vaccines for citizens of age 45 years and above is also irregular. As a result, the AMC starts the vaccination for one day and immediately halts the drive for one week. The government is supplying the vaccines one or two days a week. This pathetic situation is going on in the city for the past one and a half months. Today, the vaccine was administered to citizens above 45 years through on-the-spot registration. There was a huge rush in front of the vaccination centres. The majority of the citizens were struggling to get their second dose of the vaccine. The vaccination starts from 10 am to 4 pm, but the citizens of 45 years and above started forming the queues in the early morning.

Six centres functioning

Presently, six centres are functioning to administer the vaccine to citizens of age 18 to 44 years. Each centre is giving the vaccine to 200 persons. When the supply of vaccine for citizens of age 45 years and above is made then the AMC resumes the functioning of 22-25 vaccination centres, which gets automatically closed after the end of the vaccines. The common citizens are fed up with the frequent closure of the centres. The citizens were preferring to take vaccines in private hospitals, but the facility has also been stopped by the government.

It has been observed that the union government and the state government are pointing fingers against each other over the supply of the vaccine. The disappointed citizens Rajiv Vanarse, Kalpana Tribhuvan, Datta Patil expressed their anger against mismanagement in the supply of vaccines and underlined the harassment they faced while taking the second dose and other issues. They also mentioned their struggle while registering on the app during the evening hours and how only a few could succeed in doing so. It is learnt that there are 40,000 citizens waiting for the second dose and they are fearing, what if they do not get the vaccine on time.

Vaccination Update

Population of District - 37,01,282

Total Covid Patients Detected - 1,30,836

Total Covid Patients Recovered - 1,19,117

Total Citizens Vaccinated - 2,50,024

Total Citizens (who had taken the first dose of vaccine) - 1,94,411

Total Citizens (who had taken the second dose of vaccine) - 55,613

Total Health Care Workers Vaccinated - 39,772

Total Frontline Workers Vaccinated - 44,146

Total Vaccinated Citizens (of age 59 years and above with co-morbidity) - 87,281

Total Vaccinated Citizens (of age 18 to 44 years) - 3,251

Total Percentage of Vaccination - 9 per cent