Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 9 Apr: Arunachal currently has a week’s stock of the coronavirus vaccine left, based on the ongoing rate of vaccination being carried out in the state.
A report from the health department shows that till 7 April, a total of 77,100 doses of the vaccine were available with the department. Of the total available vaccines, 23,603 vaccines were administered to beneficiaries within the first week of April, which means that the average dose administered is 3,934 per day.
Health Secretary P Partibhan on Friday informed that the state has enough stock to last a week, and that more batches of the vaccine will be provided by the Centre soon.
NRHM nodal officer and overall supervisor for Covid-19 vaccination, Dr D Padung informed that the health department on Friday wrote to the union secretary, seeking 50,000 more batches of the vaccine for the state within the next 3-4 days.
“Presently, demands for coronavirus vaccine have risen in the whole country; hence the GoI is providing us with smaller batches on a regular basis. If the 50,000 doses that we have sought are approved by the GoI, it will approximately last us 15 days,” he said.
When asked if the state would be able to vaccinate 25 percent of its population at the current rate of vaccination, Dr Padung disclosed that the department has set a target of two months for achieving the same.
“The state has around 25,000 healthcare workers (HCW) and 45,000 field level workers (FLW), while there are around 3.4 lakh persons of 45 years and above in the state. It has been statistically estimated that the 45 years and above age group makes up around 20 percent of the state’s total population. However, we have many HCWs, FLWs and other frontline workers who are also above 45 years of age and above who have received the vaccine; so, even if we do not count them and still manage to inflate these numbers to 4 lakhs, the state will be able to vaccinate around 2.45 lakhs to 3.32 lakhs people till the next two months. The department therefore is mainly focusing on improving the current vaccination rate,” Dr Padung stated.
