Without prior notice, the vaccine centres across the port city have suddenly stopped administering Moderna vaccines. This has left around 10 lakh registered vaccine aspirants in disarray.
Among the 11 vaccination centres in the city, the service was only being provided by Chattogram Medical College Hospital (CMCH), that too in a limited scale. The centres said they had to stop as they ran out of Moderna doses.
However, the situation was different outside the city, at upazila level, where Sinopharm vaccines are being administered. Sources said people received vaccines at all 14 vaccination centres in the 15 upazilas of the district on Thursday.
However, both areas continued providing the second dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca jabs to people.
According to sources inside Chattogram civil surgeon's office, a total of 2,390,754 people got registered in the district till Wednesday. Of them, 1,050,020 were from the city while the rest 1,340,734 were from upazilas.
Of the registered, around 14 lakh have been vaccinated, either for their first dose or second dose, said sources.
Those who received a single dose of vaccine are assured of being administered the second dose immediately but it is yet to be known when would be the registered freshers would get their first dose.
According to sources, around one lakh doses of AstraZeneca, 50,000 doses of Sinopharm, and 10,000 doses of Moderna were in stock in the district till Wednesday.
CMCH director Brig Gen SM Humayun Kabir said as the hospital had some stocks of Moderna jabs remaining, they managed to continue first-dose activities at their centre Thursday.
Meanwhile, vaccine aspirants unaware of the authorities decision to stop vaccinations were seen gathering at different centres in the city Thursday.
At Chattogram General Hospital, several hundred vaccine aspirants were seen, some of whom even demonstrated after knowing vaccines weren't being administered.
"I took a leave from my office to get my vaccine, but now I have to go back without receiving it," said Aparna Das, a resident at Patharghata area who came to the same hospital.
"The authorities said vaccination would resume soon for second dose seekers but what happens to those of us who are still waiting for the first dose?" she asked.
Contacted, civil surgeon Dr Sheikh Fazle Rabbi said vaccination for the second dose will resume as soon as they would receive more vaccines from the government.
Asked about the first dose aspirants, Rabbi said the first dose seekers will eventually get their vaccines when sufficient stock of vaccine is available, but said it might take some time.
The government decided to suspend administering the first dose of Moderna Covid vaccine from Thursday.
Issuing a circular, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) instructed those vaccination centres, which still have Moderna jabs in stock for first dose, to administer those soon and make preparations for administering the second one.
The government started inoculating people with Moderna vaccine in 12 city corporation areas last month.
mj/
