Shillong: As Meghalaya was unable to roll-out vaccination against COVID-19 for those is the age group of 18-45 years on Saturday, it was made clear that the young of the State would have to wait for at least four more weeks to get their first shot of the vaccine.
The delay is caused because the State is short of vials, though the ongoing inoculation for those above 45 years would continue, said chief minister Conrad K Sangma today, a day when, as per decision of the Centre, vaccines were to be rolled out for all adult citizens.
“The challenge that we as a country and as a state are facing is that we don’t have enough stock. And the different manufacturing companies are asking for time,” Chief Minister
Conrad K Sangma said.
“Government of Meghalaya, like other states, has already placed orders but the
communication that has been given from Government of India as well as from the companies is that it would take any time between three to four weeks for them to inform us about the status of that. So, though the permission to start the vaccination was from first of May, but because of the shortage of vaccine throughout the country, most states, including Meghalaya will not be able to start the vaccination drive…but, Government of India has decided to give a small quota to all the states,” Sangma said.
“Therefore, in a systematic manner, in a proper scheduled and appointment manner, after seeing the registration that has been done on the website, we will be starting some numbers of vaccination in the next few days. But a mass roll-out will only be possible when we get the full supply of the vaccines,” he said.
The Chief Minister urged the citizens of the state between 18-45, to “please be patient”, saying, “We are working very hard to get these vaccines, we will be in touch with you, please register yourselves…”
The Chief Minister assured the younger beneficiaries that as soon as the State receives the supplies from the different companies, “we will be rolling out the vaccination drive in a very efficient manner”.
Meanwhile, the State capital wore a deserted look today as confinement measures for 10
days begun with the aim to break the chain of infection of COVID-19 which has been on the surge.
Besides the Shillong urban agglomeration, which has been the most hit by COVID-19, the confinement measures are also being undertaken at Jowai and Tura towns from 5 am on Saturday till 5 am of May 10.
