70% VACCINES TO BE USED FOR CO-MORBID INDIVIDUALS, ORDERS PUNJAB CM

Punjab will be allocated just 3.30 lakh vaccines by the Serum Institute of India to vaccinate people in the 18-44 years category in the month of May. Keeping this in view, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday ordered 70% of the doses to be reserved for individuals with co-morbidities, and the remaining 30% for the high-risk category of employees and workers in that age group.

Chairing a high-level virtual review meeting, Chief Minister Punjab announced that within these groups, the district-wise allocation has been prioritised based on the population index, mortality, and density. Given the severe supply constraints, it has been decided to limit vaccinations for people between 18 and 44 years in this phase to major urban centres, he said, while expressing concern over the fact that even for the 45+ age group, the state is in short supply, as a result of which only a few vaccine centres are currently functioning.

The state expects 2 lakh doses to arrive tomorrow for the vaccination of the 45+ category. Of the 33,46,500 Covishield doses received so far, a total of 32,91,045 has already been utilised.

In the 18-44 age group, for the month of May, the maximum allocation of 50% has been prioritised for Group A or the most-affected districts of SAS Nagar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Bathinda, and Patiala. Another 30% has been reserved for the Group B districts of Hoshiarpur, Pathankot, SBS Nagar, Faridkot, Kapurthala and Gurdaspur, while 20% will be utilised in other districts which have the least number of cases at present. Allocation has been made in proportion to the population of major urban areas in Zones A and B, while for Zone C, an equal distribution of doses for each district has been allocated.

These decisions have been taken following the vaccine strategy recommended by the state’s Vaccine Expert Committee for May, an official spokesperson said after the meeting. The committee recommended that when further doses are available or as the epidemiological situation changes, the prioritisation framework may be modified.