Districts resort to rationing of doses to avoid shortage

RANCHI: Days after the vaccination for people under 18-44 age group began in state, few districts, including capital city Ranchi, have started resorted to rationing of Covid-19 vaccine doses to avoid sudden crisis in the near future.

These districts were also reluctant to ramp up vaccination coverage under the aforementioned category for want of adequate supply of vaccines from the state headquarters.“Booking slot for taking the shot is full till May 21. We can increase vaccination coverage but it will create sudden crisis due to slow vaccine supply. The district, till May 18 morning, was left with only 12,460 doses of Covishield and 3,530 doses of Covaxin,” said a senior official of Ranchi’s civil surgeon office.

With a meagre 2.34 lakh doses of both Covishield and Covaxin in hand, Jharkhand launched the third phase of the mass inoculation drive to vaccinate 1.57 crore citizens in the age group of 18 to 44 years on May 14.

Initially, ten districts with larger population under the target category were allocated 10,000 doses and others were given 5,000 doses. Later, these districts were provided additional supply.

Ranchi, that has the maximum 13.9 lakh population under this age group, was inoculating only 1,000 people daily at its 10 Covid-19 vaccination centres (CVCs) set up for the purpose. The district has five CVCs each in urban and rural areas.

Similar is the scenario in Hazaribagh district, that was running out of Covaxin doses. “We have set up 20 CVCs. Each of the urban and the rural CVCs is allowed to vaccinate 150 and 100 people, respectively, in a day. So, the district has a daily minimum requirement of 2,600 doses,” said Hazaribagh civil surgeon Dr Sanjay Jaiswal.

He added, “The district has so far been allotted a total of 23,000 doses, including 5000 doses of Covaxin and 18,000 doses of Covishield. The stock of Covaxin is exhausted now. People, who booked for this vaccine, are being communicated to shift to Covishield. The booking slots are full till May 21.” According to Jaiswal, Covishield stock will last in the district till May 26.

Sources in state health department informed that Jharkhand till May 17 morning was left with 3.30 lakh doses, including 2.57 lakh doses of Covishield and 2.17 lakh doses of Covaxin. Around 1.49 lakh doses of Covishield were yet to be supplied, payment for which was already made, sources said. The state has vaccinated 153,544 beneficiaries under the 18-44 group so far with the first dose.