The Covid-19 vaccination drive in the state has almost come to a standstill with the number of daily inoculation ebbing sharply from Thursday as compared to previous days when over one lakh persons were being vaccinated daily across the state, according to Jharkhand’s daily health bulletin.
The daily vaccination number is set to go down further for atleast a week, as the state is left with only 1.2 lakh doses, officials said on Friday, adding that the next consignment containing 2.5 lakh doses is expected to arrive on July 15.
The state inoculated only around 27,000 persons on Thursday, when only one centre was functional in state capital Ranchi due to paucity of vaccines.
“We received one lakh doses of Covaxin on Friday. We have a capacity of administering around 1.5 lakh does everyday, but the numbers have gone down due to unavailability of vaccine doses,” said Naman Priyesh Lakra, state’s nodal officer for Covid-19 vaccination.
The state, till now, has inoculated 7,551,681 persons against the target of 2.49 crore persons in the 18-plus group. Out of those who have received the jab, only 1,248,747 persons have received both doses, according to the Covid-19 bulletin .
Sources said around 20 lakh persons are due to get their second dose, but the state is struggling to inoculate them due to paucity of vaccines. Several centres in the state have been shut in the state due to non-availability of vaccine.
As per the schedule shared by the Centre, Jharkhand will receive 33.5 lakh doses in July, including 8.5 lakh reserved for private hospitals. Out of these, the state will get 9.5 lakh doses till July 15.
Last month, the state paced up vaccination, changing its strategy to “vaccination as per availability’ from “vaccination as per capacity”. However, the health department is now reportedly forced to ration vaccines across the 24 districts in the state.
“We have the capacity to vaccinate around 1.5 lakh persons every day. We are ensuing all districts have vaccines available as per the supply. We have also re-directed vaccines to districts where stock was low. We can scale up only when we have enough vaccines,” said Lakra.
