The Covid-19 inoculation drive has been temporarily halted in Magura district due to vaccine shortage, health officials have said.

District Civil Surgeon Dr Shahidulkalah Dewan told UNB on Tuesday that the vaccination drive was stopped on Sunday after the district ran out of Covid jabs.

Read: 3 India returnees test positive for Covid in Magura

"We have exhausted all the 78,250 vials of the Covid-19 vaccine given to us by the government. The inoculation drive will resume once we receive more doses of the vaccine," he said.

However, the Civil Surgeon could not give a definite timeline for the resumption of the Covid vaccination drive in the district.

According to the Civil Surgeon's Office, some 79,905 people have registered for vaccination in the district. Six session sites have been earmarked for the inoculation drive, including Magura Sadar Hospital, Sreepur, Mohammadpur and Shalikha Upazila Health Complex.

As of May 30, some 48,445 got the first dose of the vaccine in the district. On the other hand, as many as 28,596 people have taken the second dose of the vaccine so far.

Read: 50 India returnees put in quarantine in Magura

Some 1,655 people are now uncertain about getting the second dose of the vaccine.

Tapas Biswas, 54, of Beryl village, said, "On Monday, I received an SMS on my mobile phone stating the vaccination date. But when I went to the hospital on Tuesday, I was told that there were no jabs left."

Zillur Rahman, a medical officer at the Civil Surgeon's Office, said that the government's Institute of Pathology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) had taken blood samples from 350 people for a study. 

"For them, 35 vials of the vaccine have been kept. Blood samples collected from them will be kept for up to two years and their antibodies will be tested," he said.

Read: People in Magura lose hope over district medical services

In Magura, samples of some 7,882 people were collected till Sunday and sent to the laboratory for testing. Of them, 1,254 people tested positive for Covid-19. 

While 1,230 have recovered to date, some 24 people have succumbed to the virus since the outbreak of the second wave of the pandemic. The fatality rate though is 1.91, health officials said.