About 622 doses of Covid-19 vaccines were stolen from the storeroom of a hospital in Haryana’s Jind district. However, after 12 hours, the burglars dumped the stolen vaccines at a tea stall outside Jind Civil Lines Police Station on Thursday with a “sorry” message.
Cops found a note from the box saying, “SORRY- I did not know it was Corona vaccine.” The police said that a total of 182 doses of Covishield and 440 doses of Covaxin have been recovered and the CCTV footage from the area of the tea stall was being screened to ascertain the identity of the burglars.
On Wednesday night, two unidentified burglars crashed into the storeroom of a government civil hospital in Jind and fled with boxes containing 182 vials of Covishield and 440 dosages of Covaxin. The thieves broke the four locks of the storeroom and the deep freezer. A nursing staff was called by a sweeper who came to the hospital on Thursday morning, and said that the locks of the storeroom were broken and related items of the vaccines were missing. However, other valuable items like a laptop and Rs 50,000 cash that were also lying in the storeroom had not been stolen. It was also reported that there were neither CCTV cameras or security guards outside the storeroom to prevent the theft of Covid-19 vaccines.
The Civil Surgeon has sought information from officials about whether the recovered vials can be used or not. Officials had confirmed that 1270 doses of Covishield and 440 shots of Covaxin were stolen from the freezer of the PP Centre General Hospital in Jind.
Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of the Jind Civil Hospital, Dr Bimla Rathi said that the officials saw the storeroom had been broken. “Officials reached the vaccination centre on Thursday morning only to find that the storeroom had been broken into. Jabs, including BCG and polio vaccines remained untouched while Covid-19 vaccines were reported stolen,” he mentioned.
A case was registered against unidentified persons under IPC 457 and 380. As per the Haryana Police, the thief may have picked up the Corona vaccine while he was attempting to get his hands on valuable Remdesivir injections.
