Anantnag: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s June-end deadline for completion of vaccination of the 45-plus age group is over but more than 15 percent of this population in J&K is yet to be vaccinated, the official records on vaccination show.

This is the second consecutive deadline set by Sinha that the authorities have missed for this age group.

Interestingly, no other district has been added to the tally of 100 percent vaccination in this age group, after drums were beaten about completion of target in 4 districts last month: Shopian, Ganderbal, Jammu, and Samba.

The first deadline in this regard was set on May 16 by Sinha. He had instructed that the vaccination be completed by May 26. This deadline was missed by a long shot.

“At the end of this deadline, 33 percent people in the 45 and above age group were yet to be vaccinated,” an official privy to the data on vaccination told Kashmir Reader. “In the next ten days after missing the deadline, only 4.6 percent people were given the jab.”

Between May 26 and June 13, the percentage of the 45 and above population that was vaccinated in this period was a little less than 10 percent. The slow pace of the vaccination, however, did not deter Sinha from setting yet another deadline.

On June 12 he set June 30 as the new deadline. Soon after, Kashmir Reader reported that the deadline was to be missed in all likelihood given the slow pace of the vaccination. And that is exactly what has happened.

“We still have more than 15 percent of the population to be vaccinated. Between June 13 and now, we have managed administering the jabs to less than 9 percent of the population in the 45 plus age group,” the official said, adding that at this pace it might take another couple of months to reach the target.

Srinagar and Kupwara districts continue to be the worst performers on this front. The districts are still lagging at 57.94 percent and 59.33 percent of the population vaccinated. Pertinently, no district in Jammu division has a vaccination rate of less than 70 percent in this age group.

“Baramulla and Bandipora are the only two districts that look like they are close to completing the target, having achieved 94.48 and 96.26 percent of the vaccination target thus far,” the official said. “Other districts are far behind,” he added.

State Immunisation Officer (SIO) Dr Shahid Hussain could not be contacted by this reporter today. He had earlier, on June 14, said that he was hopeful of achieving the target provided the supply of vaccines remains steady.

Suhail A Shah