New Delhi: Shortage in supply, vaccine hesitancy and unwillingness among people to pay for the shots at private facilities are hampering Punjab’s efforts to catch up with other states on Covid-19 vaccine coverage, state health officials told ThePrint.
As of 23 June, Punjab had fully vaccinated just 4.3 per cent (8.9 lakh people) of its population, while 57 lakh people (28.2 per cent) had got the first dose. These numbers were despite a reasonably adequate health infrastructure, manpower and no geographical constraints, according to state officials.
The hill state of Himachal Pradesh had managed to fully vaccinate 6.4 per cent of its population as of 23 June — double the national average of 3.8 per cent.
Gujarat, which has twice the population of Punjab, has also been vaccinating over 3 lakh people a day, compared to 1.15 lakh people in Punjab. The western state has fully vaccinated over 45 lakh people and partially vaccinated 1.55 crore, official data showed as of 12 June.
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‘Shortage leading to delay’
Speaking to ThePrint, a senior official in the state’s health department blamed the slow pace of vaccination on a “lack of supply”.
According to the state’s health department data, Punjab has been supplied with 68 lakh doses since the beginning of the vaccination drive in January, of which over 65 lakh doses have been used. Vaccine wastage, data showed, is approximately 1.5 per cent.
“What will the state do if there is no supply of vaccines to us? We are inoculating whatever we receive in a span of just a day and there is data for it. If we are also given vaccines more freely, we will be able to vaccinate Punjab’s population in no time. The availability of vaccines is what is making us lag behind,” said the official who didn’t wish to be named.
“When we were placing orders directly with the companies, then too there was an availability issue. We placed orders for 30 lakh with Serum Institute and received only 4.29 lakh. We also approached Bharat Biotech and were also in talks for Sputnik,” he added.
With the Centre reclaiming procurement monopoly through the latest change in the vaccine policy, Lal said there hasn’t been much change in vaccine availability. “The number of vaccines is the same, so it will not make much of a difference. Availability of doses still remains a major issue,” he said.
Vikas Garg, a civil servant who is in charge of vaccination in Punjab, also raised the issue of supplies, calling comparisons with a state like Gujarat “unfair” as the latter “has been receiving a regular supply of doses”.
According to Garg, between 1 June and 10 June, not a single dose was administered in the 18-44 age group as there was no supply of vaccine. The vaccination teams sat idle, he said.
The exercise began again only on 11 June, when the doses arrived and over 1 lakh shots were administered, he added.
“This is what leads to a delay. We wasted 10 days just waiting for the jabs. If we had enough supplies, we could have utilised those days to inoculate over 10 lakh people. When we have the supplies, we are vaccinating over 1.5 lakh people in a day,” Garg said.
Garg also said that, from 1 to 15 July, the state is only going to get around 9 lakh doses, which is too less. “For 15 days we will have 9 lakh doses, which is not even a lakh per day… how are we supposed to pace the drive?”
In most districts, Garg said, the vaccination is progressing neck-and-neck with supply. The doses received are administered the same day.
Moreover, when people who are willing to get a shot visit a hospital and are turned away because of shortage, they usually don’t return to get vaccinated, officials said.
“If a person comes from his home for a jab, stands in the queue and is then turned away because of shortage, then that person does not want to return to the hospital for the entire exercise again,” said a senior official, who didn’t wish to be named.
Speaking to ThePrint, a senior Union health ministry official said that every state is told in advance how many vaccines they will be given, and it is up to them to use them judiciously. The official, however, acknowledged that the manufacturing capacity of vaccines is a “limiting factor”.
“Every state, be it Punjab or any other state, is told way in advance what is the total number of doses that will be available to it. Now it is upon them to space it out in such a way that they can continue vaccinations for the entire month,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
“If in a frenzy they do a lot of vaccinations in one day or for four days and then run out of vaccines for the rest of the month then we cannot help it because the limiting factor is manufacturing capacity and right now the Government of India is talking to the industry and trying its best to increase those numbers,” the official added.
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‘People don’t want to pay for vaccines’
One more reason for Punjab’s poor performance in vaccinating its population, according to authorities, is an unwillingness among the people to pay for jabs at private hospitals.
Health Secretary Husan Lal said people keep waiting for free vaccinations at government facilities, which are already facing a shortage, leading to a further delay. As a result, private hospitals have not been using their doses fully, he said.
“Not many people are opting for a paid vaccine here and are waiting for the free jab. The private hospitals are not picking up their quota and are not even able to use the ones that are with them,” Lal said.
“Because of this, the private hospitals are not even picking up the 25 per cent doses that are allotted to them. We are now planning to ask the government to allocate a chunk of those doses meant for private hospitals to us so that we can use them,” he added.
Major private hospitals including Max and Fortis said the footfall has fallen and they are yet to utilise all the doses that were procured before the vaccine policy was changed.
“We don’t know if it is because people are unwilling to pay, but after the initial rush, things have eased out and the footfall has decreased. We are currently vaccinating around 250 people a day and are yet to exhaust our old stock,” said Bhavna Ahuja, who is in charge of vaccines in Fortis, Mohali.
Fighting the rumours, hesitancy
According to data accessed by ThePrint, until 12 July, Mohali, with a population of 10 lakh, is the only district that has vaccinated over 80.2 per cent of its population. Hoshiarpur is next on the list, having vaccinated 51.49 per cent. The data is based on the first dose.
The worst performers are Sangrur, which has vaccinated only 19.60 per cent of its population, Mansa (18.01 per cent), Fazilka (19.99 per cent) and Ferozpur (20.09 per cent). Fatehgarh Sahib, which was lagging behind with only 12 per cent people vaccinated till 27 May, has now picked up and has vaccinated 30.88 per cent of its population.
Officials in some districts said vaccine hesitancy is the prime reason behind their poor performance.
Mansa Deputy Commissioner Mohinder Pal, for example, blamed “rumours circulating on social media”.
“In our district, there were so many forwards doing the rounds on social media, dissuading people from getting the jab, and that is what led to a delay. People would believe rumours, they would trust forwards more than what doctors told them and refused to come for vaccination,” he said.
Pal has now put one officer in charge for every village in the district to promote vaccines. “We had to put one officer per village who was responsible for speaking to people, convincing them to get the jab. So, now it has started to pick up,” he said.
In Fatehgarh Sahib, along with vaccine hesitancy, there was also a shortage of manpower initially.
“Initially, our teams were engaged in providing industrial oxygen to the district, and there was a shortage of staff, which led to a delay but that is no longer the case. The main issue is hesitancy, which is now being dealt with and people are being convinced to come forward,” Fatehgarh Sahib Deputy Commissioner Surabhi Malik said.
Until mid-June, the district with a population of 6.5 lakh was only vaccinating 550 people a day. However, the drive has since picked up pace, with an average of 1,300 people receiving a dose daily by the end of the month, officials said.
“Only if we receive the adequate doses will we be able to vaccinate the entire district within a span of a month,” said Malik.
(Edited by Amit Upadhyaya)
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