Like the rest of Kashmir, Bandipora district in north Kashmir too is running short on COVID-19 vaccines.
According to locals, the vaccines are not available at the centres anywhere in the district with officials said they were not sure when the dried out stocks would be replenished as the scarcity was being felt all over Kashmir.
“I visited the vaccination centre after Eid but was told that the vaccines are not available,” said Abdul Wahid, a local.
He said that the officials at the centre told him to visit again to confirm the availability of the vaccines so that he could be inoculated.
According to the officials, the district would get 4000 doses daily or on alternate days of Covishield vaccine, which were equally distributed among the three medical blocks of Bandipora, Gurez and Sumbal or as per the requirement.
However, this time the stocks exhausted four days ago.
During these four days “zero” vaccines have been administered in the district, the data accessed by Greater Kashmir revealed.
An immunisation official in the district said, “We have no information as of now about the stocks being replenished.”
According to the District Immunization Officer, Dr Parvaiz Bandipora has so far inoculated 83,755 people with 73,392 having received the first dose and 10,574 having received both the doses.
The inoculation data is of the age group of 45 plus and include frontline workers like medicos.
The data provided by District COVID Nodal Officer said that the district recorded 101 positive cases on RaTG excluding RTPCR, with Hajin among the three blocks being worst affected with 57 cases followed by Bandipora 33, Gurez five and DH Bandipora with six cases.
Nodal Officer Mehraj Wani said, “The RAT status is till 2 pm for Sunday as the tests are done round the clock and numbers keep changing.”