When Amina Bano, 82, walked into the vaccination room of a government-run hospital in central Kashmir’s Budgam to receive her first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, 17 May, a nurse on duty had to turn her away.
“We are sorry but the vaccine is not available,” the nurse told the two young men accompanying Amina, who is a diabetic and needs a walking stick for support.
But these reassurances have failed to convince people in Kashmir where anger is growing against the acute shortage of COVID-19 vaccine.
Political parties, experts, doctors, and ordinary citizens are accusing the BJP-led administration headed by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha for “discriminating” against the Muslim majority region.
“The government will not allow any wrong to take place. Media should stop looking at this issue (of vaccine shortage) through the prism of Kashmir versus Jammu,” said Dr Saleem-ur-Rehman, Chief of J&K’s immunisation department.
But while the vaccination drive is going on smoothly in Jammu, a negligible percentage of people are getting the jab in the Kashmir region.
On Monday, only 274 people were vaccinated in Srinagar district while 3,667 Jammu residents got the jab. The government had announced the vaccination programme for people below 45 years through the CoWIN app from 1 May but it hasn’t been rolled out yet due to the shortage of vaccines.
“I have been trying to book a slot on the CoWIN app since last week without success. The government has been telling people to get the jab, but where are the vaccines?” said Arif Rashid, 43, a businessman based in Srinagar.
The non-availability of vaccines has prompted many vaccination centres in Srinagar and elsewhere in Kashmir to remain shut since last week. Private healthcare providers, who have been asked to procure supplies on their own by the UT administration, are not offering the vaccination service.
“Prioritising one region and ignoring the other amidst the deadly pandemic is regrettable. We demand an absolute uniformity in the supply of vaccines in Jammu and Kashmir,” said Imran Ansari, an influential Shia cleric and leader of People’s Conference.
The virus has so far killed 3,149 people in the Union Territory, which has 51,623 active cases, majority of them in Kashmir.
In J&K, out of nearly 34 lakh vaccine doses procured so far from the central government which runs the UT directly, over 28 lakh doses have been administered, according to the government data, with a little over 5 lakh people receiving both doses.
“Out of the total doses procured so far, 6,21,870 doses were given to the Army as per initial allocation of the Health Ministry,” Commissioner Secretary Health, J&K, Atal Dullo, said.
Later, the Army returned 58,930 doses as they had surplus, he added.
J&K reportedly accounts for eight percent wastage of procured vaccines. Last week, the Union Health Ministry warned of cutting allocation to states that didn’t bring down their wastage.
On the other hand, the Jammu region, the bastion of the BJP which has one-third less the population of Kashmir, has got the lion's share with close to 19 lakh doses, sources said.
Official sources said only one in three people in 45-plus age group have been vaccinated in Srinagar district, the second worst-hit in J&K after Jammu where almost 100 percent people in this age group have got the jab.
While there is a lack of “uniformity” in vaccine distribution between Kashmir and Jammu, the latter also fares better in terms of the infrastructure set up by the administration for fighting the pandemic.
For a population of around 53 lakh, Jammu has 2,457 beds dedicated in hospitals for COVID patients of which 1,641 are occupied. There are 2,276 beds for patients in isolation and 271 ICU beds of which 87 are vacant.
Of just 133 ICU beds in Kashmir, 75 are vacant.
According to a report in Hindustan Times, five medical oxygen generation plants purchased for Kashmir have been diverted to the Jammu region to meet the growing demand there, although more cases are being reported from Kashmir.
“For days together no vaccines were administered in Kashmir and the unmitigated disaster in Jammu continues unabated as deaths spiral due to the shortage of medical oxygen," PDP spokesperson, Najmu Saqib said.
In March, due to vaccine hesitancy, the J&K administration diverted nearly one lakh doses from Kashmir to Jammu, which is also recording more deaths among all the 20 districts.
“The vaccine has a short life and if we had not utilised it, the entire stock would have gotten wasted,” Dr Saleem-ur-Rehman, the chief of J&K’s immunisation department, told The Quint. Asked why the vaccines can't be diverted from Jammu, which isn't facing shortage of stock like Kashmir, Dr Saleem said: "The stock has already been sent to the health centres there. It is not possible to gather it again."
Last week, J&K LG Sinha set a deadline of 10 days to vaccinate all those in the 45 plus group. But it is not clear how the target is going to be achieved when vaccine supplies have dried up.
“After what has been happening in other parts of the country, there was a sudden increase in vaccine consumption in Kashmir due to which the region has exhausted its existing stock,” Dr Saleem said, adding, “But we are hopeful about getting more supplies this week.”
(Jehangir Ali is a Srinagar-based journalist. He tweets at @gaamuk. This is a report and analysis, and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
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