With Covid spectre hanging over the India, amid fresh surge in cases in China, the Gujarat state health department and the central health ministry are focused on improving vaccine coverage. But stocks of vaccines are running low.
According to Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) health officials, against 300 daily vaccinations till last week, the demand has risen to 6,000. With daily vaccinations going down in the past few months, the existing stocks either expired or did not get replenished.
The state has placed a request of 10 lakh doses of Covishield and 2 lakh doses of Covaxin with the central ministry.
Gujarat has overall coverage of about 36 percent for booster doses. In Vadodara, while Covaxin is available at most vaccination booths, there’s shortage of Covishield and Corbevax stocks; the latter is used to vaccinate children in the 12-14 age group.
The scenario is similar in Rajkot where the civic body ran out of Covishield stock about 10 days ago. Rajkot Municipal Corporation officials said that they have sought 10,000 doses from the state government as the demand for vaccination has gone up. Only 23 percent of the eligible population in Rajkot has taken the booster dose.
Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) is left with vaccine doses to last them for only three days. Over 10,000 people took vaccine shots in the last four days in Surat. From around 500 jabs daily, the city now sees 2,500 doses being administered.
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