Vaccine Registration Open For All, But No Stock!

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh government cannot administer the Covid-19 vaccine to people aged 18 to 45 years old from May 1st due to inadequate supply. However, the ongoing programme to the already targeted beneficiaries with the current doses will continue.

Unlike the previous practice of establishing Covid Vaccination Centers and setting a time schedule between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to start a vaccination campaign for healthcare professionals, frontline workers, and people aged 45 to 60 years, no such plans have been made for Saturday. However, people between the ages of 18 and 45 are still registering for the vaccine on the CoWIN website.

In the last three days, the state received three lakh doses of Covishield and one lakh doses of Covaxin, which were administered to the targeted beneficiaries, mostly those over 45 years old, as the second dose. Before starting the vaccination campaign for the new batch of beneficiaries, the state government is making sure that all of the first and second doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered to all the targeted beneficiaries. As a result, it plans to finish the exercise with the vaccines on hand.

Despite the fact that the top brass of the health authorities practically checked the vaccination programme on Friday evening, there was no word of vaccination for people aged 18 to 45 on Saturday.

District health officials say that using the available vaccine doses to the intended beneficiaries is their highest priority, but concede that they are unsure how to administer the vaccine to the new batch of beneficiaries.

According to a senior health official, “There may not be any vaccination programme for the people aged between 18 and 45 years from Saturday onwards in the state as we are not having fresh stocks of vaccine. However, the vaccination will continue for the already targeted beneficiaries with the available doses of the jab.”

Since the Centre distributes four to five lakh doses of both types of vaccine every week, state health officials are hopeful that new vaccine stocks will be available to administer shots to the new beneficiaries.