Punjab is all set to start vaccinating its younger population, falling between the age group of 18 and 44 years, from Monday. The State is expected to receive one lakh doses of the anti-coronavirus vaccine from the Serum Institute of India (SII) over the weekend, following which it would start inoculating the “priority groups”, as decided by the Government’s panel.

For the same, the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has asked the officials concerned to start preparing to vaccinate the priority groups in the 18-45 years category from government hospitals from Monday.

As per estimates, the State requires 2.64 doses of the anti-COVID vaccine to cover the population of 1.32 crores in the age group of 18-44 years.

Even as the Centre kickstarted the third phase of the vaccination drive, covering 18-44 age group, on May 1, the Punjab Government decided to defer the same due to non-availability of the vaccines. However, some private hospitals, which had placed direct orders for vaccination, have commenced the process of vaccinating the 18-44 population and so far, about 1000 have been vaccinated in this age group. In fact, the Government’s vaccination drive, to cover 45-plus category, has also been hit because of the shortage of vaccines. As of now, the State is still short of 32 lakh doses for the 45-plus age category.

Punjab has a population of approximately 72 lakhs persons falling in the age group of above 45 years, whose vaccinations are to be provided by the Central Government. “The Centre has provided only 40 lakh doses — 36.50 lakh doses of Covishield and 4.10 lakh doses of Covaxin — of which two lakh doses remain. The State is facing a deficit of 32 lakh doses on this account,” said Punjab Health Director Dr Gurinder Bir Singh.

As on Friday (May 7), a total of 24,62,907 (more than 24 lakhs) have been vaccinated with the first dose in the above 45 age group, while 3,13,734 have received the second dose. Besides, as many as 7,30,637 healthcare and frontline workers received their first jab, while 2,14,539 have received the second dose.

“We had decided to start vaccinating the younger population as and when we start receiving the vaccines. As decided, we had prioritized the age groups, districts, categories of people according to their occupation to cover in this age groups as we have limited vaccination,” Punjab Government’s health advisor Dr KK Talwar told The Pioneer.

Notably, the State Government has identified 18-45 age group construction workers, teachers, government employees, and those with co-morbidities as high-risk individuals for priority vaccination.

The Chief Minister, who was chairing a virtual COVID review meeting on Friday, directed all government employees, except those with medical problems, to get vaccinated.

The state’s Labour Department will coordinate the vaccination of construction workers and their families, to be funded by Punjab’s BOCWWB (Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board).

The Deputy Commissioners, who have been asked to coordinate vaccination of government employees, would also plan the vaccination of co-morbid categories with only advance registration and slotting of vaccination site to be allowed.

Notably, the State Government had ordered 30 lakh vaccine doses from SII for the Phase III vaccination, and the Centre has now allocated 3.30 lakh against this order to Punjab for this month.

As per the vaccine strategy recommended by the state’s Vaccine Expert Committee for May, 70 percent of the doses would be reserved for individuals with co-morbidities, and remaining 30 percent for the high-risk category of employees and workers in this age group.

Within these groups, the district-wise allocation has also been prioritized based on population index, mortality, and density. According to the same, maximum allocation of 50 percent has been prioritized for Group A of the most-affected districts of SAS Nagar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Bathinda, and Patiala.

Another 30 percent has been reserved for the Group B districts of Hoshiarpur, Pathankot, SBS Nagar, Faridkot, Kapurthala and Gurdaspur, while 20 percent will be utilized in the other districts that have the least cases at present.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister has directed the Chief Secretary to explore utilization of some component of the state’s World Bank loan for purchase of 10,000 Oxygen concentrators, along with tankers and O2 plants as well as vaccines.

The Chief Minister expressed gratitude to the various organizations that were sending aid to the State to support its fight against the second deadly wave of the pandemic.

He informed the meeting that besides the TATA Group, which was sending 500 Oxygen concentrators, an additional 200 concentrators were being sent by the Tata Memorial Hospital also.