Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Apr 30: The tall claims of administration that stock of Covid-19 vaccines and Remdesivir are available in adequate quantity in Jammu and Kashmir are falling flat as almost every vaccination centre in Kashmir division has run out of stock.
People from different areas of Kashmir said that they have been visiting vaccination centres for three consecutive day, “but no vaccines were available”.
“Officials at the centre is telling us to come for vaccination next week. We were also told to confirm the availability before visiting the centre,” they said.
They requested concerned authorities to make vaccines available at the earliest.
Notably, a day before the administration had claimed that there is no shortage of vaccines besides medicines and other things.
Top health officials from the Kashmir division said that in past two-three days there was vaccination shortage mostly in Srinagar district “but centres in other parts of Kashmir are also running dry.”
Officials said there has been a spike in demand for vaccines, which is why the stock is over.
However, they claimed that in the coming days, the shortage would be taken care of.
As per official figures, the administration has vaccinated over 22 lakh people in Jammu and Kashmir which includes 50 per cent of the target so far in the age group of people above 45.
State Immunisation Officer said that for Friday, there was the stock of just around 16,000 vaccines available for Kashmir, however, per day around 40,000 were being vaccinated in the Kashmir division.
He said that the 16,000 vaccines would have been administered in morning.
“We are in touch with concerned authorities and fresh stock will reach here tomorrow or day after tomorrow,” he said. “There is no need to worry as everyone will get an opportunity to get vaccinated.”
Financial Commissioner Health and Medical Education Atal Dulloo had said that starting the vaccination process for all above 18 years of age will take around 20 days time.
“As of now State/UT administration has to purchase vaccines directly from manufacturing companies which they earlier were getting directly from the central government,” Dulloo said.
