COVID-19 VACCINATION STATUS
STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The State Health department has said there has been delay in injecting Covid-19 vaccines to some beneficiaries due to certain technical reasons.
The department has refuted reports of non-availability or shortage of Covid vaccines in some hospitals and health centres in Upper Assam.
"The batches of Covid-19 vaccines have to be used or discarded within four hours of the vials—each contains 10 doses—being opened. In some government hospitals, health centres and private health institutions vials of Covid vaccines could not be opened due to inadequate number of beneficiaries. Under such circumstances beneficiaries are being sent back their homes giving them alternate dates for vaccination. Under the vaccination protocols we cannot open a vial that contains 10 doses of Covid vaccines in case the number of beneficiaries is less than five at a particular time. This is why registration for Covid vaccination is very important for systematic injection of the vaccines," a Health department official closely associated with vaccination drive told The Sentinel on Monday.
The official said there is no shortage of Covid vaccines in Upper Assam districts. He said Dibrugarh and Jorhat districts have nearly 10,000 surplus vaccines against the number of beneficiaries registered to get the doses.
On the other hand the Health department stopped registering new beneficiaries under the category of health workers and other frontline personnel to inject Covid-19 vaccines.
A Health department official said the Covid vaccination drive started in Assam along with rest of the country on January 16, 2021. He said several lakhs health workers and frontline personnel were vaccinated in the first and second phases that lasted for nearly three months.
"Now the government has focused on vaccinating new categories of beneficiaries including those in the group of 45 and above. Those in the category of 60 and above are getting top priority in the ongoing vaccination drive. In view of increasing load of new beneficiaries under different categories we have decided to stop vaccinating new health workers and frontline personnel," the official said.
A cumulative total of 10,46,386 beneficiaries have so far received the first dose while 1,77,393 beneficiaries have received the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine with only a cumulative of 187 cases of Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI) being reported provisionally (of which 72 cumulative cases of AEFI have been verified).