Six months after their deaths, families of 2 Covid victims get SMSes claiming they’ve got second vax dose

Ishita.Mishra

Meerut: Despite getting the first dose of Covid vaccine on March 20, Manju Goel (62) succumbed to the deadly virus on April 25. Similarly, Bhagchand Jain (69) got his first dose on March 16, but he, too, died of Covid on March 29. However, their families received SMSes informing them they have received their second dose a few days ago — almost six months after their deaths. To add to the families' pain, the health department in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut passed it off as "just a clerical error".

“I received a message on my mother’s phone that she got her second Covid vaccination dose on October 29 - almost six months after her death. Initially, I thought that someone was trying to misuse her identity. But when I contacted the health department, they casually reported it as a clerical error,” said Manju Goel's son, Gaurav.

Vineet Jain, son of Bhagchand Jain, also faced a similar situation after his 12-year-old son informed him about the SMS on his grandfather's mobile.

“This came as such a rude joke for all of us. I tried to contact the health department. They only said that the matter will be probed,” Jain told TOI, while showing his dead father’s vaccination certificate.

When contacted on Monday, chief medical officer (CMO), Dr Akhilesh Mohan said, “It seems to be a mistake as people with similar names were waiting for their second doses. The person uploading the data must have got confused with the same names.”

This is not the first such case reported in the area. Earlier, the family of a 26-year-old girl, who had died in June, was informed that she had got her second shot in September. The health department had constituted an inquiry in the case and at that time, too, concluded that it was a "clerical error".