Irshad Hussain
As India grapples with the increasing COVID-19 positive cases, Jammu and Kashmir have also become a victim of the massive surge in the Covid positive cases and the COVID related deaths. However, the administration of Jammu Kashmir has said that to beat this second deadly wave, vaccination is the only way out.
And amidst this spike in positive cases, Kashmir valley is facing a huge shortage of vaccines both in CoVaxin and covishield.
According to a government release, not a single dose of vaccine has been given to people in the last 5 days. The J&K media bulletin clearly shows that in all the ten districts of Kashmir valley, not a single vaccine dose has been given to any citizen.
At one of the vaccination centers of Srinagar, a local doctor who wished not to be named, told The Kashmiriyat that for the last 15 days they don’t have any vaccine to inject the people.
“Although people are turning up now for the vaccination, Kashmir has run out of Covid vaccines,” she said
On Sunday, all vaccination centers across Kashmir recorded zero vaccinations. The official data released in the evening showed nil in all categories of vaccination in the valley. The data for Jammu region, however, showed that around 9000 vaccinations were given.
Another doctor who wished not to be named told The Kashmiriyat that these days they’ve witnessed a massive flow of people at vaccination centers. People want to inject themselves, but unfortunately many centers are running out of vaccines. But there are some centers in Srinagar like JVC hospitals, and Jawhar Nagar, which might have availability of vaccines.
“I can’t tell the exact date when the vaccines will be available at our center, ” he said.
The Traders Union Magam (TUM) General Secretary, Mir Ashraf told The Kashmiriyat that people who got the first dose earlier, too, have been left high and dry as their time for the next dose has arrived while there was no availability of the vaccine in Kashmir.
“Not a single person has been vaccinated during the past six days in Kashmir, while there has been no paucity of the vaccine in Jammu,” Mir said.
It’s pertinent to mention here that in the last month itself, Adviser of Jammu and Kashmir administration, Baseer Ahmad Khan held a press conference in which he said, “Let me tell you in our Union Territory we have 20 tons of Oxygen available which is sufficient to meet any demand. There should be no room for any doubt,” said Khan.
Khan said that Jammu Kashmir is at first position where 1.25 crore vaccines have been procured. Uttar Pradesh is at second place as for as vaccine procurement is concerned.
On the ground, when The Kashmiriyat contacted doctors at vaccination centers, they said that there are no vaccines available for people amid crisis, when cases are continuously going up.