Vaccination drive for 45+ gets disrupted due to shortage of vaccines

Picture used for representational purpose only

Bengaluru: The vaccination drive in Karnataka with those above 45 years has been disrupted as there is a shortage of vaccines. It is yet to receive Covishield doses from Serum Institute of India (SII) and so, it has already postponed the drive to be started on May 1 for those an ode 18 years.

Last week, the government had placed orders for 1 crore doses worth Rs 400 crore and on Thursday it had placed an order for 1 crore doses but the institute said that will not be able to deliver them for the next three weeks.

The government is now struggling to get some stocks from the Centre so that they can continue the drive for the 45+ category and begin the drive for 18+ after the lockdown ends on May 12.

People who scheduled to get their doses this week and next week reported that the CoWin portal was not scheduling appointments indicating a shortage of vaccines.

According to the reports, private and government centres sent people back on Thursday due to a shortage of vaccines.

Sources in the opposition party said that when Siddaramaiah called chief secretary P Ravikumar on Thursday to know about the vaccine availability, he was told that the government is expecting the next batch of vaccines to reach on May 4.

Ravikumar stated that the government plans to buy 6 crore disease of Covishield for now as there are 3.2 crore beneficiaries in the 18-44 years category. Order for more vaccines will be placed later.

State government and private entities can now procure vaccines from the producers on their own from May 1. Health Commissioner Triloka Chandra said, “SII has not spelt out the delivery schedule, but we’re expecting an interim delivery on Friday.”

Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said, “So far, the centre has supplied 99 lakh doses to Karnataka and 94 lakh doses have been administered in the state. Around 5.9 lakh doses are available and the next phase will continue based on availability of vaccines.” In the meantime, registration for above 18 years old was permitted in CoWin but it did not schedule the vaccine session.