*Picture shows crowded Vaccination Centre, Sadar Hospital, Ranchi on March 1, 2021.

On the first day of COVID-19 vaccination programme, a long queue was visible at the state government-run Sadar Hospital at Ranchi. At the entry gate of the vaccination centre, there was no guard, no sanitization facility.

Nobody was following social distancing and mask-wearing, two important guidelines issued by the Union Home Ministry's Standard Operative Procedure. Worse, senior citizens were made to stand in queue for hours.

Asked why this kind of a mess at this centre of the state government, and vaccination centre in-charge Dr Bimlesh replied that there is a lack of coordination among the staff of the inaugural day."It will become alright", he asserted. 

What troubled the vaccine seekers who stood in the queue at Sadar Hospital centre was the fact that though they had already got themselves registered online, they were asked to get verified again. At the verification centre, they were told that they will have to wait as the staff were busy verifying beneficiaries of the vaccine's second dose. 

As a result,75-year old Anand Shankar Mohanty complaint that she had come and stood in the queue at 9 am to get herself registered.: "But I could not succeed till 12 noon", she cribbed, a sentiment shared by scores of senior citizens.

Notably, those senior citizens who were vaccinated were not made to relax as there was no vacant 'Observation" room. Though vaccination took place in two rooms, the Observation room was just one. There was no observer either. 

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