The ‘Tika Utsav’ announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi failed to take off in Anantapur and Kurnool districts as the stock of COVID-19 vaccines dried up by Saturday night and new stocks was yet to arrive.
This is the case with many districts in the State with a few of them having meager stocks enough for half a day. The ‘Tika Utasav’ was launched in a token manner in certain urban locations on Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, people are hesitant to get vaccinated just two days prior to the Ugadi festivities.
“People in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka do not want to get bogged down by the side effects of the vaccines on a festive day,” said S. Siva Prasad, who registered for vaccination, but did not go to the inoculation centre on Saturday.
In Anantapur, the vaccine stock has been exhausted at all urban and rural health centres, where the ‘Tika Utsav’ was to begin on Sunday. No formal inauguration of the programme was done in Anantapur as even as the district officials administered 24,500 doses (inclusive of 800 of II dose) on Saturday alone. “Except for a few PHCs, there is no vaccine stock. The programme will begin only after the stock arrives. We have administered close to 3 lakh doses so far to eligible people,” said District Medical and Health Officer Y. Kameswara Prasad
Focus on urban locations
In Kurnool district, 2,62,523 people were inoculated by Friday night and 17,000 doses were administered (totally 2,79,523) on Saturday. The district was left with 5,600 doses for the Sunday’s ‘Tika Utsav’.
“We are focussing on 26 urban locations in Kurnool, Nandyal, Adoni, Nandikotkur, and Atmakur, to administer the vaccine as part of the programme. However, the stock will be enough till 1 p.m.,” said District Medical and Health Officer Rama Giddaiah on Sunday morning. Anantapur was the only district in Andhra Pradesh that had reached its target given by the State government and exhausted the entire stock of vaccines by Saturday.
Kurnool had a stock of 6160 doses left by Saturday night, which were utilised today. Krishna district had 32,500; SRS Nellore 11,670 and Vizianagaram 16,610 doses in their stock by Saturday night.
Published - April 11, 2021 11:43 pm IST
