THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Health centres on the outskirts of urban areas have been forced to turn away a large number of elderly people seeking COVID-19 vaccination. The reason: the health department has failed to supply enough doses even a fortnight after the second phase of vaccination began in the state.
People come in large numbers to local centres for spot registration once they fail to get slots through online registration. "I came to the family health centre (FHC) for spot registration as I couldn’t get the booking done online. But the officials here say that only people who book through Asha workers will be vaccinated," said Somarajan Panicker from Kayamkulam.
At the FHC in Chettikulangara, the booking is done ward-wise. However, a majority of the seniors gathered at the centre for spot registration complained they were unaware of the arrangement. In the absence of official communication, people depend on hearsay.
"We hired an autorickshaw to reach the centre at 7am because I heard that’s when they start issuing tokens. The officers came after 9am to say that spot registration can’t be done and asked us to hurry to the district hospital in the town," said Krishnamma, who went to a primary health centre (PHC) in Mavelikkara along with her husband, Rajendran.
The health officer there said PHCs and FHCs get 100 doses a day, which is insufficient to meet the demand. "We can keep aside a maximum of 70 doses. The rest is for healthcare workers and poll officials. So we direct people to larger centres with sufficient stock of vaccines," the officer said.
Because of rejections at peripheral centres, the demand for spot registration is huge at major centres in smaller towns. Every day, beneficiaries turn up in large numbers and up to 200 tokens are issued by 9 am. "Some wait till evening to get vaccinated though we give them a tentative time for vaccination. The problem is that many come from far-off places," said an officer at the District Hospital, Mavelikkara.
The hospital has started booking a day in advance for the convenience of people. However, the move failed to produce the desired result as more people turned up for spot registration the next day and advance booking was cancelled.
An officer with the National Health Mission said the supply of vaccines would be streamlined this week with a focus on increasing regional vaccination camps.