Amaravati, May 10 (IANS): The vaccination process in Andhra Pradesh literally came to a halt on Monday, with several district collectors announcing that covid vaccination has been temporarily suspended.

A similar situation was reported in a number of districts including Guntur, East Godavari, Kurnool, and Krishna.

While 3.6 lakh doses of covishield vaccine had arrived in the state on Sunday, the government has decided to prioritise on administering vaccine second doses, effectively halting the first dose process.

Even as state government officials claim that they are adopting the strategy of administering only second doses to reduce crowding at vaccination centres, several doctors said that shortage of vaccines has forced a halt on first dose administration in the state.

With no advance information about suspension of vaccination, large crowds descended upon the vaccination centres in the morning, only to return angry and disappointed.

Meanwhile, the state government is working on a new strategy to prevent overcrowding, officials said. The authorities plan to begin the vaccination process, only after distribution of tokens. Vaccine recipients will be categorised as corona warriors, above 60 years, and above 45 years. Tokens for these categories, containing vaccination schedule details, will be delivered to the recipients' homes, by ASHA workers.