THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Mass crowding and utter chaos was witnessed at the Jimmy George Indoor Stadium, one of the main vaccine centres in the city, on Monday morning as countless people queued up there to get their COVID-19 shots. Three elderly people fell unconscious and unruly scenes broke out at the centre as those who arrived for the vaccine were kept waiting for hours.
Hundreds started queuing in front of the centre from as early as 7 in the morning. These included people who were unable to take the vaccine on previous days. Crowd control had gone for a toss with people arriving for the vaccination being given the same time slots and being made to wait for hours in front of the vaccination centre.
"There is no social distancing and everyone is crowding here. We will all get infected by the coronavirus for sure. The government has failed totally and we have been put at major risk," said an elderly woman as she waited in the queue. Serpentine queues were witnessed in front of the vaccination centre with altercations arising between those who arrived to get the vaccine and staff members.
Despite registration being made mandatory for vaccination, the timings of all those who arrived coincided. "We have been here from the morning and it is confusing how all of us were given the same time slot. They should have limited the number of people in each time slot," complained another elderly person.
Even as health experts had warned of the need to avoid mass crowding at the vaccine centres as this could lead to the formation of clusters that can spread COVID-19, none of the warnings was adhered to at the vaccination centre. It was only after the police arrived that crowd control was made possible.
Even as the health department was being accused of failing to control the crowd at the vaccination centre, the District Medical Officer has maintained that time slots were given to people but it weren't adhered to by them which led to crowding.