The ‘Tika Utsav’ announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi failed to take off in Anantapur and Kurnool districts due to drying up of the vaccine stocks by April 10 night and delay in the arrival of additional doses from the Centre.
Another factor has been the hesitancy of the people to get vaccinated two days before the Ugadi festival.
“While those in north India may not celebrate Ugadi, we in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka do not wish to get bogged down by the side effects of the vaccines on a festive day,” said S. Siva Prasad, who had registered for the vaccination, but did not go to the centre on April 10.
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In Anantapur, the stocks are exhausted at all urban and rural health centres, where the Tika Utsav was to begin today.
No formal inauguration of the programme was done in Anantapur as the district administered 24,500 doses (inclusive of 800 of second dose) on April 10 alone.
District Medical and Health Officer Y. Kameswara Prasad said that “except for just a couple of vials left over a few PHCs, there was literally no vaccine available till it arrived from the Centre. We administered close to three lakh doses so far to eligible persons.”
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In Kurnool district, while 2,62,523 persons were vaccinated by April 9 night, on April 10 alone 17,000 doses were administered (total 2,79,523) and the district was left with 5,600 doses for Sunday’s Tika Utsav.
“We are concentrating on 26 Urban locations in Kurnool, Nandyal, Adoni, Nandikotkur and Atmakur to administer the vaccine as part of the programme and it will be enough till 1 p.m.,” District Medical and Health Officer Rama Giddaiah told The Hindu .