Vaccination drive temporally halted at Erandwane centre in Pune

The Covid-19 vaccination drive was temporally halted at the Erandwane vaccination centre in Maharashtra's Pune district on Saturday as stocks of vaccines ran out and was resumed after 12 noon after officials went and sourced more doses.

A long line of COVID-19 vaccine beneficiaries were seen waiting outside the centre where supply of vaccines ran out. Later in the afternoon around 12:15 pm, the vaccines arrived at the centre and the vaccination drive was started again.

"Yesterday I have been told to come here today to get the vaccine as they were out of stock, but today also there is no sign of vaccine, I am standing here from 7 am," a senior resident said.

Another beneficiary said, "We have no idea about the vaccine as we have been told that the vaccine will be availed from 11 am, some said it will be available at 3 pm, we haven't got any clear idea."

People who have registered for vaccinations had turned up early and had been waiting for their turn to get vaccinated.

The vaccination drive was supposed to open at 9 am here. Staff at the vaccination centre said officials had gone to collect the doses and will soon reach with vaccines after which the vaccination drive will start again.

Pune district has received 2.48 lakh doses of vaccines so far.

According to the Union Health Ministry, Maharashtra reported the highest daily new cases at 56,286 on Friday.

India's COVID-19 tally hit a record daily high since the outbreak of the pandemic with over 1.45 lakh new infections being reported in a span of 24 hours, taking the cumulative count to 1,32,05,926, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The single-day rise in coronavirus cases breached the one lakh mark for the fourth consecutive day.

( With inputs from ANI )