Vaccine again out of stock; “No vaccination in Silchar tomorrow” informs Urban Welfare

The Department of Health, Cachar issued a press statement informing there won’t be any vaccination in Silchar tomorrow. The press statement informs, “On Friday, vaccines won’t be available at any centers in the Silchar town.”

Dr. Rima Patoa, in charge of vaccination – Urban Family Welfare informed that the stock of doses allocated to Cachar’s Urban has run out. She also mentioned that the vaccination process in the centres of Silchar will only start once the district gets fresh stock. She said there is no clarity yet, as to when the stock will arrive.

Cachar is lagging in vaccination compared to other districts in Assam. A district with 12,78,881 eligible beneficiaries has only inoculated 4,33,593 doses and just 61,500 individuals are fully vaccinated which is just 4.80% of the eligible population. Kamrup Metro, which has 11,52,748 eligible beneficiaries has inoculated 10,03,157 doses more than twice that of Cachar. In fact, today, 10,027 doses were administered in Kamrup District compared to 1,608 of Cachar.

Not only Kamrup, but Cachar is also behind Dibrugarh which has administered 2500 doses today and 4,57,247 in total, Nagaon which administered 3,235 doses today and 4,65,875. Even neighbouring district Karimganj, which is one-third the size of Cachar has administered 3,049 doses today, double of what was done in Cachar.

The health department of the district maintained that the vaccination rate depends on the availability of doses. Why the government is allocating fewer doses to Cachar despite having one of the largest eligible populations, is something only the think tanks in Dispur can reveal.

Please note: All data quoted in the story have been sourced from the Cowin Website at 9:30 on July 15. And eligible beneficiaries means the number of voters since only 18+ are eligible to get the jab.