Vizag waits to replenish depleting stock of vials

Visakhapatnam: Even as the four-day-long mass vaccination drive 'Tika Utsav' takes off in the country, including parts of Andhra Pradesh, followed by the call given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Visakhapatnam could not follow suit as it grapples with shortage of vaccine doses.

Shortage of vaccine has been reported from other parts of the State like Kakinada, Rajahmundry, Krishna and Guntur districts as well.

In Visakhapatnam from 4,000 persons a day who got vaccinated in the initial months to 20,000 individuals a day now, the Health officials say that the count of people approaching session sites to get immunised has seen a five-fold increase.

The reasons behind the rise in the number of people getting the jab appear to be plenty. "Compared to the initial days, there is a growing awareness among people about the need to get vaccinated.

This apart, the spike in the daily caseload is invariably driving people to go for the vaccine," reasons PS Surya Narayana, District Medical and Health Officer (DMHO).

Close to 3.7 lakh vaccines were received in Visakhapatnam, while about 3.5 lakh got vaccinated till now.

"As a part of the Tika Utsav, we might need 55,000 vaccines a day and there is a requirement of 2.7 lakh vaccine doses to conduct the mass vaccination drive," explains Dr Surya Narayana.

According to the Health officials, an action plan is ready to roll out the four-day-long Tika Utsav as soon as the district's depleting stock gets replenished.

In order to meet the growing demand, vaccines will also be administered at secretariats in addition to 180 session sites in Vizag.

In Srikakulam, though Tika Ustav started off as scheduled on Sunday, the stocks of the vials got exhausted on the day one itself.

"As a part of the drive, the target is to administer 500 vaccines a day at 16 urban PHCs and 100 a day at 84 rural health centres across the district.

The rest of the four-day-long drive will be taken forward once the stocks get replenished," says J Nivas, District Collector of Srikakulam.