Vax centres overcrowded in Palampur, staff in tizzy
In many health centres, people are reaching as early as 6 am to collect tokens, though the vaccination starts at 10 am. The health officials are finding it difficult to handle the crowd. In many centres, the authorities had to call the police for maintaining social distancing and saving themselves from manhandling.
The Tribune team today visited some health centres in Palampur, Dheera and Baijnath sub-divisions, where the vaccination drive was in full swing. A huge rush was witnessed outside the centres. A doctor on duty said the pace of vaccination was slow initially, but with the rising number of infected patients and deaths in
the district, more people were coming forward for vaccination. He said because of technical glitches in the portal, many a times, it took 10 to 15 minutes to vaccinate one person.
“All efforts have been made to maintain distancing, but sometimes it becomes difficult to handle the rush, as in most of the hospitals, the waiting area is limited.
So, social distancing is not possible. Tokens are distributed daily in the morning, and then, one by one, a person is called for vaccination,” the doctor said.