Only 6.30% of Assam’s population is fully vaccinated, severe vaccine shortage leaves paralyzed people
The critical shortage of Covid-19 vaccines has crippled the ongoing vaccination campaign in Assam. So far, the state has only managed to give full doses to 6.30% of the population.
Amid a wave of Covid-19 cases in the northeast, long queues for vaccine doses have now become a regular occurrence in most vaccination centers.
The state’s health department has been forced to close many vaccination centers across Assam due to a vaccine shortage.
According to the Assam government, the state has reported a total of 33,961 Covid-19 cases and 398 deaths in the past 15 days.
On the other hand, only 6.30% of the state’s total eligible population has received both doses of the vaccine so far. There are a total of 2.33 crore of eligible people in Assam, but only 14.69 lakh have so far received the two doses of the vaccine.
According to the Assam health department, 85.41 lakh people were vaccinated until July 15 and among them, 70.72 lakh people received the first dose while 14.69 lakh received both doses.
However, Assam’s Health Minister Keshab Mahanta said there was no acute shortage of vaccines in the state.
“We have set ourselves the goal of vaccinating 200 to 250 people in each center every day. If 50 more people go there, health workers will face problems. But we kept a record to vaccinate excess people the next day, â€said Keshab Mahanta.
On the other hand, Assam Tea Tribe Welfare Minister Sanjay Kishan said the state government has set up many vaccination centers across the state, but the shortage vaccine hindered the process.
Speaking about the vaccination campaign in the state’s tea plantation areas, Kishan said there were many more tea plantation workers in the state who had not yet been vaccinated.
“There are still a lot of people to be vaccinated in the tea garden area. There are over 1,000 tea gardens and we have had vaccination campaigns in some. Our chief minister is trying to get more vaccines and has asked the prime minister to increase the vaccine allocation for Assam. I hope the allowance will be increased for Assam, â€said Sanjay Kishan.
During the recent virtual meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma asked the Prime Minister to increase the vaccine allocation in Assam so that the vaccination target is reached as soon as possible.
The Chief Minister of Assam stressed the importance of containing the pandemic in the state’s tea plantation areas and briefed Prime Minister Modi on efforts to vaccinate the population as soon as possible.
