KOLHAPUR: A large number of second Covishield dose beneficiaries turned up for the vaccination drive in the district on Thursday, However, most had to return without the final jab as the daily quota of vaccines got exhausted.
Manisha Patil, a vaccine beneficiary at KMC’s Firangai Hospital, said, “When we came on Wednesday, we were asked to come at 6am on Thursday to take a token for the vaccine. We took the token early in the morning and waited in the queue for around two hours on Thursday. I finally got my second dose after a gap of 98 days. There was so much rush at the vaccine centre that chances of contracting the infection here were more.”
KMC deputy commissioner Shilpa Darekar said, “People are panicking and arguing with the staff saying that they had received a vaccine appointment message. They need to understand that the auto-generated message is received by everyone who has completed 84 days since the first dose. Due to the short supply of vaccines, we have started the token system to at some places to control the crowd. At some places, a prior list of vaccine beneficiaries is prepared and people are called accordingly. In the city area, 27,263 people are awaiting their second dose, but we have received only 7,000 vaccine doses. We will be getting more doses soon and everyone will get their jabs.”
Dr Farukh Desai, the nodal officer for vaccination in the district, said, “On Thursday, 9,339 beneficiaries got their second Covishield dose and 1,324 got the first dose. Also, 1,232 people got the first Covaxin dose while 75 received their second dose.”
