Even as the country faces acute medical shortages amidst growing COVID-19 cases, thieves broke into Jind's PP Center General Hospital storeroom in Haryana and stole nearly 1,710 doses of Covaxin and Covishield vaccines.
A total of 1,270 doses of Covishield and 440 of Covaxin were stolen from the hospital, SHO of Civil Lines police station Rajender Singh said. The police have registered a case against unidentified persons.
The matter came to light when a sanitation worker found the locks of the store and deep freezer broken on Thursday morning. The thieves broke open four locks of the storeroom and the deep freezer.
A medical officer said that other valuable like laptop and Rs 50,000 cash besides other things were also lying in the storeroom but the thieves did not steal them. "The accused did not touch any other vaccine, medicine, cash, etc. lying in the store," he said.
Meanwhile, a health department official in Jind said there are still enough doses of the COVID-19 vaccine available. By Thursday afternoon, 1,000 additional doses each of the two vaccines would be available at the civil hospital, he said, adding that 6,000 doses of Covishield would reach the hospital by the evening.
Haryana on Wednesday recorded the biggest daily jump of 9,623 COVID-19 cases and 45 fatalities that pushed the state's infection tally to 3,81,247 and the death toll to 3,528, a health department bulletin said.
The Haryana government on Wednesday announced summer vacation in schools till May 31, amid surging COVID-19 cases in the state.
