HYDERABAD: The shortage of Covaxin has hit Telangana, with the majority of those waiting for a second dose unable to procure it. Especially in Hyderabad, this has led to crowded Urban Primary Health Centers (UPHCs) and GHMC-run centers with serpentine queues. On Thursday, July 29, 2021, many such hopefuls congregated at a center in Secunderabad where a stampede-like situation occurred. This is happening as Covaxin is being allotted only in 14-18 centres, whereas there are over 25 GHMC-run centers for Covishield. Data on center wise break up of vaccines at UPHCs is unavailable, thus adding to the confusion.
“My domestic worker was given Covaxin last month as is due for the same. She has been visiting several PHCs across the last four days but everywhere, there is a board that declares unavailability of Covaxin. Private vaccinations for her would prove very costly but looks like we would have to support her to procure the same as Covaxin is only available at private centres,” said Akshay Kumar, a resident of Kushaiguda.
It may be recalled that during July, nearly 3 lakh citizens who were previously inoculated with the said vaccine became eligible for the second dose.“We are getting vaccines on a day-to-day basis with no means to predict how much of which vaccine will come tomorrow. We are as helpless as the people and on top of that, managing the long queues has made it tougher,” said a health official from Central Zone, GHMC region, on condition of anonymity.
The State government had previously stated that owing to a nationwide shortage, the supply from the Centre had been low. Citizens are demanding that just as special drives were conducted for vaccinating people of ‘high risk, high exposure’ category with the first dose by issuing a day-wise token, a similar drive must be held to get these same individuals inoculated with a second dose in an orderly fashion.