INDORE: Around seven months after the beginning of mass drive to inoculate its adult population with Covid-19 vaccines, the district has so far only achieved 60% of targeted dose inoculation.
The records suggested that the district had only inoculated 34.01 lakh doses to its 18 plus population against a target of 56.14 vaccine doses. The district has a population of 28.07 lakh persons aged above 18 years according to an estimate of electoral rolls.
The union government in May this year during Covid-19 stated to inoculate all adults with two doses of Covid-19 vaccines by December and resultantly rolled a plan for it.
District immunisation incharge Dr Tarun Gupta said, “The district is top performer in state not only in inoculating maximum doses of vaccines but also covering its population with at least one dose.”
In the district, around 95% of the adult population are administered the first dose of Covid-19 vaccines, which is the maximum in any of the districts in the state. The district is among top performing ones in first dose coverage in the country as well, said Dr Gupta.
“The first dose inoculation was completed in July itself if the supply hadn’t been regulated in district post mega drive held in the last week of June”, said Dr Gupta.
The state government diverted vaccine supply to 30 districts with low coverage amid shortage in July while regulating to districts like Indore.
This diversion hit the drive badly in Indore due to reduction in vaccination sites, while lowering motivation for even taking a second dose among people, who are waiting for vaccination in their nearby areas.
“Indore district alone has around two lakh people, who are overdue to take second doses of Covid-19 vaccines. Of those two-lakh people, around one-third are those, who have taken Covaxin as first dose”, said Dr Gupta.
Amidst this, the less allocation of Covishield vaccines to the district for the last two weeks further aggravated the situation. The district was allocated around one lakh doses of Covaxin but only allowed to administer limited doses in a day.
“We have put demand for Covishield vaccine to complete second dose of people. We are targeting to inoculate all the targeted people with at least first dose along with covering all those overdue for second dose in mega drive to be held on August 25 and 26”, said Dr Gupta.
