815 persons inoculated in last three days in Valley
By: Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar: Amid the spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths across Jammu and Kashmir, the Kashmir division is facing acute shortage of Covishield vaccine.
The official figures available has stated that only 815 persons have been vaccinated across the Valley in the last three days while not a single soul has been inoculated in seven districts of Kashmir today.
Sources within the health department said that there is a shortage of Covishield vaccine in almost every tertiary health care facility across Kashmir.
They said those who have taken the first dose of vaccine around two months before are waiting to get the second jab of the vaccine.
People questioning the policy of the government said that on one hand they have been requesting to follow Covid appropriate behavior and get vaccinated at the earliest but on the other hand there is a dearth of vaccines.
Mohammad Akbar, a resident of Pulwama said that he has taken the first dose of Covishield vaccine around two months before and since then he has been waiting to get the second dose.
“Whenever I contact the authorities, they say as of now no vaccines are available,” he said.
People urged the authorities to make vaccines available at the earliest.
State Immunization Officer, Dr. Shahid Hussain admitted the shortage of Covishield, saying that the vaccine will be available shortly.
He said that he has taken the issue with the serum Institute today as well and vaccines will be available shortly.
Pertinently, only 208 persons have been inoculated across Kashmir division during the last two days while around 20,000 people have been vaccinated in Jammu division during the last 48 hours.
Meanwhile, only 607 persons were vaccinated across Kashmir Valley on Saturday. Official data revealed that not a single person was vaccinated in seven out of 10 districts of Kashmir.
The government data shows that no person was vaccinated in Srinagar, Kupwara, Bandipora, Budgam, Kulgam, Anantnag and Pulwama.
According to the statistics, 504 persons above 45 years of age were vaccinated in the region. Of them, 211 were inoculated in Shopian, 30 in Baramulla and 263 in Ganderbal district, the data reveals.
Among 14 healthcare workers inoculated in Kashmir, nine were administered doses of COVID-19 vaccine in Baramulla, two in Shopian and three in Ganderbal.
Apart from citizens above 45 years of age and healthcare workers, 89 frontline workers were administered COVID vaccines in the region.
Of them, 35 were from Shopian, one from Baramulla and 53 from Ganderbal, the status of vaccination reveals.
So far, 1335758 persons have been vaccinated in different health institutions of Kashmir region.
Of which, 1027897 are citizens above 45 years, 238883 are frontline workers and 68978 are healthcare workers.
According to data, 61.14 per cent of the population above 45 years of age were vaccinated in Kashmir till date.
It is pertinent to mention that J&K administration has repeatedly claimed that there is no shortage of COVID-19 vaccines in the Union Territory. (KNO)
