The immunisation campaign against Covid-19 came to a standstill in the Jharkhand capital on Monday as almost all the government-run sites remained non-operational owing to a shortage of vaccines, health officials said.
Even though the Centre's Co-Win portal showed that at least four government-run vaccination centres administered jabs to beneficiaries in Ranchi, Ranchi civil surgeon civil surgeon Dr Vinod Kumar clarified that none of the government session sites opened its doors for vaccine beneficiaries on Monday.
“All government-run session sites were closed today (Monday). We will get fresh supplies on Wednesday, and the vaccination campaign cannot regain pace until we receive more vaccines,” said Dr. Kumar.
Highly placed sources in the health department said that data displayed on the dashboard of Co-Win portal is often different from the actual situation in the state as vaccination figures are updated gradually from different parts of the state.
According to the official website of Co-Win, at least 10 session sites – six private and four government-run – were operational in Ranchi on Monday. At least 766 Ranchi residents were administered vaccine jabs against Covid-19 by 5.49 pm, as per the Co-Win dashboard.
Local residents struggled to book vaccination slots on Monday and many beneficiaries went to private facilities and paid for the vaccines due to unavailability of slots in government-run centres.
Tushar Rishi, 27, eventually got a dose of Covishield at Medica Advanced Diagnostics Centre at Bariatu for Rs780 after failing to get a slot in a government-run vaccination centre. According to Rishi, only Bero Community Health Centre and Chanho Community Health Centre were open for free vaccination, and none of the two CHCs had slots available since Sunday evening.
“None of the government vaccination centres in urban areas were open today. Who would travel 20-30 kilometers outside the city to get jabbed at a CHC? The government should do something about the situation as not everyone can afford paid vaccination at private clinics,” said Rishi, a working professional.
As per data shared by the National Health Mission (NHM) on Monday evening, the state had only 71,980 doses of vaccines in stock, enough to last a little more than a day. So far, the state has received 82,69,110 doses of Covishield and Covaxin from the Centre and administered 83,18,231 doses, including Sputnik V procured separately by private hospitals, to Jharkhand residents. Only Medanta Hospital administered Sputnik V doses in Ranchi on Monday.
As per the schedule of vaccine supply, on Wednesday, at least 2,13,340 Covishield doses and 31,130 Covaxin doses will be delivered to Jharkhand. The state will receive 2,30,430 Covishield doses and 35,570 Covaxin doses on July 24. At least 2,53,580 Covishield doses will be delivered to Jharkhand the next day and 4,51,970 Covishield doses will reach the state on July 29. The state will also get 68,400 doses of Covaxin on the same day.
