Covishield sessions set to resume

Gurgaon: The city will receive 4,500 doses of Covishield for

vaccination

of the 45-plus population and 5,000 for people in the 18-44 age group on Wednesday. At present, it is conducting only Covaxin sessions for the 45-plus because of unavailability of Covishield. The pace of

Covid-19

vaccinations in Gurgaon has been very slow because of an acute shortage in supply of vaccines.

Haryana has recently received 50,000 vaccines for the 45-plus category and 75,000 doses for the people in the 18-44 age group.

These are Covishield doses, according to the

health department

. “We will be provided fresh consignments for both the 18-44 and 45-plus categories. We will then be able to conduct sessions for both categories,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, Gurgaon.

Since January 16, Gurgaon has conducted over six lakh vaccinations, around 12% of the state’s total tally of 50.1 lakh. The city hasn’t been able to carry out any sessions to administer Covishield to people belonging to the 45-plus group due to lack of vaccines for several days now.

Government facilities in the city didn’t conduct vaccinations for the 18-44 age group on Monday. Only two private hospitals — Max and Fortis — carried out the drive and vaccinated 395 people. On Tuesday, however, 4,747 people got vaccinated in this category at government setups and private facilities.

On Tuesday, 578 people in the 45-plus age group were also inoculated. As many as 24 healthcare workers and 464 frontline workers also got jabs. A session site was held for journalists at John Hall on Monday, where 65 took the shot. Since May 1, a total of 57,852 people in the 18-44 age group have been vaccinated in Gurgaon.

A total of 61,689 people in the 45-plus category have got jabs this month so far.

Many haven’t been able to get inoculated due to the vaccine shortage. “Getting an appointment for vaccination is very tricky. I have been trying since May 1 but haven’t been able to get a slot yet,” said Ashok Kumar, a resident of Sector 89.

“Now, most private hospitals aren’t carrying out Covid vaccinations in Gurgaon, so the number of session sites has gone down. The slots open between 6 pm to 7pm every day, but it is difficult to get in. I have registered on the portal but haven’t been able to book a slot,” said Preetam Garewal, another resident.

While around 220 centres were vaccinating people in April, only about 40 are conducting the drive at present.