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A TOTAL OF 139 senior citizens were vaccinated on day one of the vaccination roll out in Panchkula amid technical and logistical issues faced by the district health authorities.
Vaccinations for the citizens were carried out at Civil Hospital, Sector 6, Polyclinic, Sector 26, and at SDH Kalka. While the district aimed to vaccinate 300 people on the first day of phase three rollout, only 139, including the ones who registered through the application, were vaccinated.
“I was scared to come for the vaccination, but my son convinced me and made sure I was here on day one itself. The hospital authorities took very good care and I did not even realise when I was vaccinated. I felt no pain or discomfort,” said Manmohan Kapoor, 86, after receiving his first dose of the vaccine.
Manmohan’s son, Varun Kapoor, who was also present at the site expressed joy at his father’s vaccination. “We used to be scared for him when the virus had hit. We had to take precautions and limit his time outside home. He would go to work, but no one was allowed to interact with him. We are hopeful that after he receives his second dose, he can start enjoying the menial things of life again,” he said.
While the vaccine provided hope to some, others expressed anger at having to return due to technical issues. Ashwani Gupta, who had reached the hospital at 10 am, had to return after waiting for more than an hour as the computer server were down. “It was an awful experience. We stood in a queue for hours but they could not get their servers to work. It was a sorry state of affairs,” said Gupta, adding that he will not go back to government health facilities and would rather get the vaccine from private centres. “Hopefully they will have better preparations,” Gupta added.
When asked about the incident, Dr Meenu, heading the vaccination campaign of Panchkula, told The Indian Express, “It was day one of the vaccination drive and we faced several issues including technical as well as logistical. People also did not know how to register via online portal and app and thus we registered walk-ins on entry. There were also unexpected issues with the portal. We will work on making improvements to everything.”
Talking about an expected rise in number of people coming in to get vaccinated, she said, “We want more and more to get vaccinated at a quick pace and numbers are bound to rise as people realise it is safe and important to get vaccinated. We are working on expanding the vaccination for citizens to dispensaries. At least seven private hospitals will also make vaccination facilities available within this week.”
The private hospitals in Panchkula expected to begin vaccinating people include Alchemist hospital, Ojas hospital, Paras hospital, Malik hospital, Sector 12A, Dhawan hospital. Sector 7, Ruffle hospital, Sector 14, and Radhidevi hospital, Amravati.
Among prominent personalities who took the vaccine on Monday were two retired IAS officers, Sameer Pal Srow and Minakshi Anand Chaudhary.
Meanwhile, on Monday a total of 403 against a target of 550 persons were vaccinated in Panchkula. These included 142 healthcare workers, among whom nine received the first dose, and 133 who received the second dose against a target of 150. As many as 61 frontline workers, against a target of 100 were also vaccinated. The district has vaccinated 11,1736 people as of yet, including 6225 healthcare workers, 5514 frontline workers, and 139 citizens.
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