Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, May 1: The Jammu and Kashmir government on Saturday rolled out the largest vaccination drive for people between the age group of 18-45 years and on day one over 200 persons were vaccinated.
State Immunisation Officer Dr Shahid Hussain said that day one 140 persons in Jammu and 64 persons in Kashmir got Covaxin doses.
Pertinently, due to the shortage of the Covishield vaccine, government had decided to start largest vaccination drive from around May 20.
Dr Shahid said that “we are expecting Covishield vaccine for 18-45 years of age in between 15 to 20 May, however, yesterday late night we got intimation from Bharat Biotech a Hyderabad based company about Covaxin and during night invoices were prepared and on Saturday afternoon we received 1.5 lac doses of Covaxin, 75,000 doses for each division and accordingly drive was started.”
He said that those who have taken the Covishield vaccine must take Covishield as a second dose and can take it at any Covishield site.
He further added that those among 18-45 years of age who want to take Covishield have to wait few days as our big consignment of Covishield is coming in next few days.
He said that they are going to ramp up the vaccination drive from tomorrow and there will be separate sites for Covaxin and Covishield.
He said that on Saturday 24,870 persons received Covishield doses in Jammu and Kashmir.
The State Immunization Officer said that so far 2,371,985 doses of Covishield vaccine have been administered in Jammu and Kashmir and among them 1,992,448 doses have been given as first dose and 379,537 as second dose.
