For seniors, an arduous wait for vaccines

For seniors, an arduous wait for vaccines

Nivedha.Selvam1@timesgroup.com

Coimbatore:18.06.2021

Around 6 am on Thursday, 63-year-old S Jayanthi, a resident of Vellakinar, and her 68-year-old husband rushed to corporation’s elementary school upon hearing that the civic body was administering Covid-19 vaccine to those above 45 years. But their joy of finally getting vaccinated was short-lived.

While standing in a serpentine queue awaiting their turn to get the jab, a corporation worker appeared and asked them to come back the next day as there were no available slots. For the second time in the last two days, the couple returned without taking the jab. The couple has decided to try their luck again on Friday, and plan to visit the school a little early in the day as they are due for their second dose.

“We took our first dose of Covishield in March at a private hospital. When we were due for our second dose in May, we visited multiple primary health centres and waited for several hours... but to no avail,” said Jayanthi.

Hers is not a lone case in the district. For many senior citizens like her, getting vaccinated is a gargantuan task as they have to wait endlessly in queues at corporation centres for multiple hours.

A resident of Vadamadurai M Madhankumar questioned if it was difficult for officials to inform the public about the location and timings of vaccination camps in advance. “Most of the time, the CoWin website has no booking slots available.”

When contacted, a corporation official said that his team has directed all centres to distribute tokens in advance to avoid crowding at centres. He said steps would be taken to adopt uniform timings in all the centres.

NO STOCK: A corporation centre in Coimbatore has no vaccines