Arvind Sharma
The tall claims of speeding up vaccination to prevent third wave of Covid-19 appear to have fallen flat as the Jammu region has been facing acute shortage of vaccine since the last one week, particularly for the people falling in the age group 18 to 45 years.
Reliable sources informed the Northlines that the worst sufferers are the people falling in the age group of 18 to 45 years.
“In most of the vaccination centers in Jammu region, people have not been vaccinated for the last 6 to 7 days,” they said adding, “Although, people in the age group of 45 plus are being vaccinated after an interval of 2 to 3 days in some of centers but the people falling in the age group of 18 to 45 years have not been vaccinated for the last around one week”.
Most surprising is the fact that there is no vaccine in the Government Medical College and hospital (GMC&H), the premier hospital of the region Jammu.
“We receive 120 doses of vaccine whenever it is supplied to us but we have not been supplied vaccine for the last 4 days to vaccinate people in the age group of 18 to 45 years,” reliable sources in the premier health institute informed the Northlines.
“Of these 120 doses, we have instructions to vaccinate 80 people who have registered themselves, while doses are to be administered to others i.e ‘walk in’ category,” sources said.
In this regard, Director, Health and Family Welfare, Dr Saleem-ur-Rehman, when contacted said that things would be streamlines soon.
“We are way ahead of rest of the country as Government of India is very generous to us in providing vaccine,” he said adding, “Today, we have received one lakh doses of vaccine and it would be provided to various centers”.
Regarding the age group of 18 to 45 years, he said we ahead of various states as we have vaccinated 24% people in this category.
