GURGAON: Haryana ran out of Covid-19 vaccines on April 1, and private hospitals across the state don’t have stocks either, data by the health department and CoWin portal shows.
The lack of vaccines comes at a time authorities have been urging people to get booster shots as infections are on a rise across the country.
Officials said on Tuesday their last consignment of vaccines, received in mid-February, ran out this month.
The government’s vaccine procuring agency, Haryana Medical Services Corporation, has raised a request for 50,000 doses with the manufacturers, but officials have no information on when the stocks will be replenished. The request was made for just 50,000 doses as there are only a few takers for the booster shots, they added.
“We ran out of vaccines on April 1. We had raised a request of 50,000 doses as people so far have not shown much interest in taking the booster shots. We carried out vaccination drives in rural and urban areas and also went door-to-door, but there were few takers. More recently, the demand has gone up as cases have increased, and that’s why stocks have run out. These vaccines have a small shelf life, that’s why we aren’t ordering in large numbers,” said Virender Ahlawat, the state immunisation officer.
Data from the Centre’s CoWin portal shows that Haryana’s booster coverage is low. Just 13% (around 20 lakh doses) of the state’s eligible population (1.5 crore) has taken the precautionary dose in the state since the inoculation drive was expanded to include booster shots in January 2022.
In the city, around 5 lakh booster shots have been administered, accounting for around 20% of those who got vaccinated here.
When asked when the state can expect a new batch of vaccines, Ahlawat said it wasn’t clear. “Procurement of vaccines takes time. We do not have information on when we will receive a fresh consignment,” he said.
Some city residents admitted that the recent increase in cases had prompted them to look for vaccination slots. “I have been scanning for a slot for the past one week now, but no one seems to be offering the vaccine,” said Gautam Prakash, a resident of South City-1.
Multiple attempts by this correspondent to log in to the CoWin account led to an error pop-up on Tuesday evening. Several other users did not receive the OTP required for the log-in. “There might be some delay in receiving the OTP due to heavy traffic,” the website said. The situation, TOI had reported this week, was similar in Noida and Ghaziabad.
Experts and doctors have urged people to take the booster shot to strengthen their immunity against the viral infection, cases of which are on an upward trend across the country, including Gurgaon and Delhi-NCR.
People who have taken two doses of the vaccine are eligible to take the third shot after a six month gap. Haryana has given 100% first doses to its eligible population, but the state is at 88% in second dose coverage.
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