70% doses reserved for co-morbid patients in 18-45 age group in May

With the state getting 3.30 lakh vaccines for 18-45 years category from the Serum Institute of India for May, chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday ordered 70% of the doses to be reserved for individuals with comorbidities, and the remaining 30% for high-risk category of employees and workers in this age group.

Chairing a virtual review meeting, Amarinder said that within these groups, districtwise allocation has also been prioritised based on population index, mortality and density. The state government had last week ordered 30-lakh doses of Covishield directly from the SII.

“Given the severe supply constraints, it has been decided to limit the vaccination for 18-44 age group in this phase to major urban centres,” he said, expressing concern that even for the 45+ age group, the state was in short supply, as a result of which only a few vaccine centres were currently functioning. He said the state expects 2 lakh doses to arrive tomorrow for vaccination of 45+ category. Of the 33,46,500 Covishield doses received so far, a total of 32,91,0450 have already been utilised. The Union health ministry has allocated 6.2 lakh doses, including 4.7 lakh Covishield and 1.5 lakh Covaxin, for the state during the first fortnight of this month for free vaccination of 45+ population.

In the 18-44 age group for May, the maximum allocation of 50% was prioritised for Group A of the most affected districts of SAS Nagar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Bathinda and Patiala,

a spokesperson said. Another 30% has been reserved for the Group B districts of Hoshiarpur, Pathankot, SBS Nagar, Faridkot, Kapurthala and Gurdaspur, while 20% will be utilised in the other districts that have the least cases at present. These decisions have been taken in accordance with the vaccine strategy recommended by the state’s vaccine expert committee. The committee said when further doses are available or as epidemiologic situation changes, the prioritisation may be modified.

Obesity, disabilities included in list of comorbidities

Accepting the recommendations of the committee, the chief minister approved expansion of the list of comorbidities to include

obesity (BMI>30), disabilities (spinal cord injury) and multiple co-morbidities determined to increase risk by a treating physician, in addition to those specified by the central government. He pointed out that since individuals with co-morbidities are at highest risk of severe disease and deaths, it was imperative to vaccinate them on priority. For the remaining 30%, the CM said while the roadmap contains a list of professions at risk, given limitation of vaccine availability, for May, the top 3 categories were chosen. These are government employees, construction workers, teachers and other staff at educational establishments. The panel also recommended that increased doses be sought in partnership with private sector and other sources.