Many citizens under 45 yrs already inoculated in state
While some used their contacts to get the jab, others got the shot during ‘special drives’ of health dept
CHANDIGARH: Even as the Punjab government will start the Covid-19 vaccination drive for the 18-plus category on Monday, Hindustan Times has found that many citizens under the age of 45 years have already been inoculated owing to loopholes in the registration process.
The nationwide drive had started on January 16 for health care workers and was later extended to other frontline workers, senior citizens and people in the age group of 45-59. However, this correspondent has met several people who come in neither of these categories but have been inoculated by the health authorities, apparently under pressure to increase the number of administered doses.
A 27-year-old man, who is working as an electrician at a private company in Mohali, got the jab around three weeks ago when a team of doctors allegedly asked all employees of the firm to get vaccinated irrespective of their age. “Nobody asked us about our age, though we did show the Aadhaar card,” he said.
A 38-year-old woman, who is working as an executive in a private construction firm in
Mohali, was vaccinated along with all her colleagues at another such special camp organised at her office. “We were told that the labour department has asked the entire office to get vaccinated,” she said.
Names of such people are not being published to conceal their identity, though HT is in possession of copies of their vaccination certificates for the first dose.
Meanwhile, many people
also used their contacts to get vaccinated out of turn.
A 32-year-old agriculturalist from Jalandhar got inoculated as he “knew someone” at a local private hospital. A 20-year-old college student from Kharar was vaccinated earlier this month, while a 19-year-old girl is set to get the second dose this week.
‘Leading to shortage for intended beneficiaries’
On April 3, on receiving reports about people getting jabbed after posing as frontline workers, the Centre had changed the registration criterion on the CoWIN portal, making it mandatory to have the employer’s certificate stating that a person under the age of 45 is on frontline Covid-related duties. However, in Punjab, the practice continued on a large scale even till Saturday, as confirmed by both beneficiaries and officials.
While some officials involved in the drive consider there is nothing wrong in it, many attributed this practice to the vaccine shortage for intended beneficiaries.
“Our second shot of Covishield is due for the past seven days, but we have been told to wait because of shortage of supply,” a teacher from Kapurthala said. A government doctor involved in the drive in Patiala admitted that because of poor response from targeted beneficiaries in the earlier stages of the drive, other people were given the shots.
“One vial contains 10 doses, and in the beginning, there were times when only five to six people turned up at the vaccination centre. Wasn’t it wise to utilise the rest of the doses instead of letting them go waste?” said the doctor, claiming that the footfall at various centres has gone up only in the past 10 days.
Dr GB Singh, director, health and family welfare, said: “I won’t categorically deny that a few persons posing as frontline workers managed to get the jab. However, there is no shortage of vaccine for the second shot, as we have reserved 70% of the doses for it.”