Noida: While the mega vaccination programme has been postponed in both Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad districts, the health department is mulling hard with the routine vaccine programme as the present stock of vaccines is not even sufficient to meet the daily vaccination target. Officials said that the Heath department is now distributing this handful of vaccines to those centers that receive more traffic.
Even the district hospitals in Noida and Ghaziabad that had increased to inoculate more numbers of people daily are now vaccinating just 30-40 per cent of their capacity. At these hospitals, the walk-in vaccination has completely been suspended while people who have come with prior appointments booked are only getting the jab. A senior health official
said that the mega vaccination can only be done after the second half of the month.
"We have written to the state government about the shortage of vaccines with the district but they have shown inability as they do not have adequate stock with them. We have been assured that the proper supply of vaccine is expected to be restored within the next two weeks and till that time we have to hold our cluster-based vaccination programme," the officer said.
State officials have said that the central government is supplying vaccines now and the state is receiving five-eight lakh doses daily, which is being distributed among all districts. However, the state needs at least three times the present supply of vaccines to carry out vaccination on a larger scale. Uttar Pradesh has inoculated over 1. 27 crore people in June, which is the highest in the country while the Gautam Buddh Nagar district has inoculated over 12 lakh, the highest among all districts.