PATNA: Chief minister Nitish Kumar said the state government would buy vaccines against coronavirus (Covid-19) on its own to continue inoculating its people as Centre is not providing them to the state, as per a communique from the chief minister’s office on Monday.
The state had exhausted its vaccine supply on March 31.
The communique, however, was silent on the state’s unmet demand for Covid-19 vaccines, how it would buy them from the manufacturers who weren’t producing enough, the state’s vaccination coverage in different age groups, and the demand and supply gap of different vaccines for different age groups.
Over 3.49 crore of the state’s estimated 5.9 crore adult population is still to take the booster shot, as its coverage was a dismal 27% in the state. However, the vaccination coverage in the 60 lakh cohort of the 12-14 years children and that of the 1.1 crore cohort in the 14+ to 17 years age group was between 80% and 90%, said officials who did not wish to be named.
The CM asked his officials to ramp up testing of samples for Covid-19 and to also keep up the tempo of testing. Kumar said the actual spread of Covid-19 could only be ascertained on the basis of increased testing of samples. He said Bihar is contributing to nearly one-third of the country’s total testing of samples against Covid-19. The CM said the government should continue with the testing of samples irrespective of the rise or decline in the number of active Covid-19 cases.
Kumar also asked his officials to keep medicines, consumables, equipment and ensure the availability of oxygen to tackle any eventuality arising out of Covid-19. He also asked them to advise people to wear masks in crowded places.
The CM also directed officials to conduct mock drills to check the preparedness for Covid-19 across all hospitals in the state.
Meanwhile, Covid-19 mock drills were conducted at different hospitals across the state on Monday. Details of the drill were not available as the State Health Society, which coordinated and compiled the drill report before sending it to the state and Central health officials, did not share the findings till filing of the report at 8pm on Monday.
Health secretary and executive director of the State Health Society, Sanjay Kumar Singh, did not respond to calls.
“We checked our system for receiving patients, evaluation, and treatment, besides examining our oxygen delivery apparatus and functionality of equipment and machines. All were found to be in perfect order,” said Dr Manish Mandal, medical superintendent of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, where the drill was conducted at the emergency on Monday.
