Rajasthan: Vaccination drive for 18-44 age group restricted to three districts today | Jaipur News

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JAIPUR: Even as confusion prevailed over starting vaccination for the 18-44 age group, the state government and the health department on Friday finally decided to hold the drive in three districts of the state at select locations on Saturday.
The decision was taken after they received confirmation on receiving about 5.44 lakh vaccines from the Serum Institute of India (SII) in the evening. Of this, three lakh vaccines were expected to reach the state by evening. Jaipur, Jodhpur and Ajmer are the three districts selected for the drive that will start on Saturday for the 18 years and above group.
According to Dr Raghuraj Singh, nodal officer (vaccination), Jaipur will have 14 vaccination sites while Jodhpur and Ajmer will have 11 sites each for the purpose.
Earlier in the day, government officials and even health minister Raghu Sharma kept changing their statements on whether the drive for this age group would start on Saturday.
Initially, the government said only beneficiaries in the age bracket of 34-44 years would be vaccinated as they had received confirmation on receiving only three lakh vaccines by 12 midnight on Saturday. But in the evening, the government clarified that they were ready to start vaccinating the 18-44 age group but only in three districts of the state.
“We had sought 3.75 crore lakh vaccines from SII and they have agreed to send us only three lakh vaccines. Thus, we have decided to start our May 1 vaccination programme for the 34-44 age group only,” Sharma told TOI initially.
“We are ready with our resources to vaccinate about seven lakh people in the age bracket of 18-44 if we get the vaccines. I urge the Government of India to allow other companies to start manufacturing vaccines so that the states have ample supply,” he said.
However, in the evening, the health department received confirmation that they would receive 5.44 lakh vaccines to start with.
“Since only three lakh vaccines will come late in the evening, it has been decided to start the drive at Jaipur, Ajmer and Jodhpur only for the 18-44 age group on May 1,” said Dr Raghuraj Singh.
On being asked whether those who registered on April 28 would get to know details of their vaccination sites, Singh added, “This won’t be a walk-in vaccination. People who have registered or are going to do so will get to see the vaccination site option from 5am on Saturday. We anticipate some problems on the first day, but these would be rectified as the day progresses.”
From May 2, the vaccination drive will be extended to 11 districts. Authorities clearly stated that no walk in vaccination by merely showing Aadhar card would be entertained for the age bracket of 18-44.