While the surge in Covid-19 cases continue to pose a stiff challenge, health authorities in Punjab are also confronted by a dismal vaccination percentage with the State not having consumed even half of the total doses supplied by the Centre.
As per data available from the Punjab health officials, a total of 19.17 lakh doses (17.80 lakh doses of Covishield and 1.37 lakh doses of Covaxin) were received from the Centre out of which 3.50 lakh doses were meant to be supplied to the defence personnel.
To the disappointment of the health teams, of the remaining 15.6 lakh doses, only 6.38 lakh have been administered to beneficiaries of Phase I and II registering a mere 40.71 per cent consumption rate in the State. “After having given the 3.50 lakh vaccines meant for the armed forces, we still have more than 9 lakh doses in stock and we are trying to ensure its usage before they expire. It’s a big challenge,” said a State health official.
Even the vaccination rate of the frontline and healthcare workers has been far from satisfactory. Of the 4.68 lakh frontline and healthcare workers registered so far, only 58 per cent have been given the first dose. The authorities, however, insisted that with recent awareness drive the numbers could increase.
State Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said that the health teams were trying to adopt a more proactive approach towards vaccination but lamented they were battling the high rate of a new variant. “Almost 81 per cent of the samples collected in the state have shown the UK variant. Added to this is the influx of NRIs,” Sidhu told the News 18.
He pointed out that with the Centre agreeing with the idea of people above the age of 45 to be vaccinated will also be an advantage. Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had recently urged the Centre to review its immunisation strategy to vaccinate all age groups in selected areas. He had also called for occupation-based immunisation for school and college students and teachers among other occupations.
Senior health officials pointed out that the situation of Punjab could not be compared with that of others as there were border districts such as Fazilka, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur where health infrastructure was still not upgraded.
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here
Comments
0 comment