Anantnag: The discrepancy between Covid-19 vaccine jabs administered in the two divisions of Jammu and Kashmir has further widened over the past ten days, during which more than 93 percent of the vaccine shots given in J&K have been in Jammu division.
A look at the data tells us that a total of 15,22,716 doses of Covid vaccines have been administered in Jammu division since January this year. Kashmir division with a larger population has administered 13,39,720 jabs thus far, which is 1,82,996 lesser doses than in Jammu.
A study of the data, released by the information department, shows that only 1,233 doses of the vaccine were administered in Kashmir division on May 10, compared to 26,739 doses in Jammu division.
“On the same day, 7 HCWs (health care workers) and 67 FLWs (front line workers) were vaccinated in Kashmir as compared to 199 and 1,062 in Jammu division, in that order. The difference is hard to overlook,” an official privy to the data said.
The trend has continued since. The administration in Kashmir division has managed to administer a total of 8,241 doses (HCW: 168, FLW: 710 and above 45: 7363) while as in Jammu division 1,28,529 doses of the vaccine (HCW: 1211, FLW: 6793 and above 45: 120525) have been administered in the same time.
“Which essentially means that Kashmir division has got 6.4 percent of doses since May 10, in comparison to what Jammu division has got,” the official, requesting anonymity, told Kashmir Reader.
The numbers would have been further apart but the administration did not release the vaccination data on two occasions (May 17 and 18) after social media uproar over the discrepancies in numbers.
While the numbers speak for themselves, State Immunisation Officer Dr Shahid Hussain argues that there has been no stepmotherly treatment to Kashmir division as far as providing the vaccination doses is concerned.
He attributed the lesser number of doses administered in Kashmir division to an early hesitancy towards getting vaccinated. “In Jammu, people came to get vaccinated from the very beginning and they continued with a steady pace. In Kashmir, people were reluctant to begin with and volunteered only after a sustained media campaign,” Hussain told Kashmir Reader.
He said that in Kashmir there was a peak in the month of May itself where over 80k vaccination doses were administered in a single day. “We ran out of doses as more and more people kept coming forward in Kashmir. In Jammu though, the steady pace continued and their doses lasted the entire period,” Hussain said.
Otherwise, the SIO maintained, Jammu and Kashmir have been getting equal number of doses, like on May 1, May 5 and May 6, when both the divisions got 50k doses.
“In fact, there has been an increase in number of doses to Kashmir division in the recent supply. Kashmir has received 90k of the 1.5 lac doses sent to the UT while Jammu has got only 60k doses,” Hussain said.
He maintained that the pace of vaccines will pick up from Thursday onwards, for Wednesday was the regular vaccination day (for children) and only some vaccine (593) doses were administered therefore.
The date released, late Thursday evening, however shows that the difference in the vaccination doses continues as Kashmir vaccinated 2,990 people while 12,175 were vaccinated in Jammu region.
A senior official in the administration told Kashmir Reader that a total of 69,093 Health Care Workers have been vaccinated in Kashmir division so far while 86,344 HCWs have been vaccinated in Jammu division.
“The above 45 vaccination is going on in pretty much the same manner with Jammu division getting 12,05,244 doses and Kashmir division only 10,31,419 jabs. The only section where Kashmir has done better than Jammu is the Front Line Workers section and not by much (2,39,208 doses in Kashmir and 2,31,128 in Jammu),” the official said.

Suhail A Shah