Health infra in place, but short of doses: Punjab Govt

Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 25

Amid shortage of supply from the Centre, the state government claims that it is not being able to use the infrastructure it has established to administer Covid vaccine to people in the state.

The health department is equipped to give three lakh doses per day, but is able to administer just 65,000 doses currently. Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said the state was equipped with infrastructure to vaccinate three lakh persons every day, but the Centre had failed to supply the required doses due to which the state’s vaccination drive was moving at a slow pace.

Though in last week (May 16 to May 22), the state vaccinated 4.29 lakh people and drive picked up a little pace as compare to the past, overall it is still not able to use even 20 per cent of the infrastructure. At one point of time last month, the state was giving over 1.5 lakh doses everyday but due to shortage of vaccine, the graph kept on declining. Till mid-April, the state was administering between 6 and 7 lakh doses on an average. So far, the state has given 48.12 lakh doses to various groups, including healthcare workers, frontline workers and people above 18 years.