THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Covid-19 vaccine shortage has forced many districts to keep several mega vaccination centres shut, causing inconvenience to people arriving for spot vaccination. Among the three regions, Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam suffered most from the shortage on Friday. As many as 1,76,061 people across the state received vaccination on the day. Thiruvananthapuram district, which had been leading in the state in giving daily jabs, opened just 24 centres instead of 184 operated on Thursday.
Though the authorities claimed the public was informed in advance about the temporary closure of vaccination centres, several beneficiaries were caught unawares. In Ernakulam district, people who had booked slots at a private hospital for vaccination received intimation that the booking had been cancelled. The state has 3,41,419 doses in stock at present.
Health officials said the situation would improve slightly with the arrival of fresh stock on Saturday. “We will be getting two lakh doses on Saturday. However, it will not be sufficient to restart mega vaccination camps,” said a health official.
The state has sought 25 lakh more doses each of Covishield and Covaxin. A mass vaccination campaign was launched when Covid cases started to rise. With the opening of mega camps, daily vaccination started touching the 3-lakh mark, sparking concerns over the availability of vaccine.