COVID19: Which states in India are reporting ‘vaccine shortage’? Details here
Maharashtra, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh have written to the central government asking to be supplied more doses of COVID-19 vaccine as these states have limited stock to last them a couple of days only. Which state has demanded how many doses? Read.
Many states complain of having limited vaccine doses. Pic used for representation purpose. Photo: Pixabay
Yesterday, in a statement, the Union Health Minister said there was no COVID-19 vaccine shortage in the country and any such reports were “utterly baseless”.
However, in the past few days, a number of state governments have written to the central government informing the latter about their vaccine stocks running dry.
Here are details of states that have reported vaccine shortage. These are based on the official letters exchanged and various news reports.
Maharashtra: Yesterday, April 7, Rajesh Tope, the health minister of Maharashtra, the state worst affected by COVID-19, said the state has vaccine ‘stocks to last only 3 days’. Several vaccination centres have already run out of vaccine doses. For instance, there are reports of many vaccination centres in Maharashtra being closed temporarily owing to the shortage of vaccines.
Today, April 8, a vaccination centre in Mahim and Jumbo Vaccination Center at ESIS Hospital in Vashi, was closed after it ran out of vaccine doses. Vaccination has stopped in districts like Satara, Sangli and Panvel.
Of the 71 private hospitals approved for vaccination drive in Mumbai, vaccination was stopped at 25 private hospitals today due to insufficient vaccine stock. The remaining centres will also close down in two days if Cente fails to provide enough vaccines, as per Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
Tope has alleged that states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana have been given more vaccines compared to their state population and Maharashtra with a much higher population has received less doses.
As per news reports, in the recent vaccine rollout to states, the Centre has given 750,000 doses to Maharashtra, 4.8 million to Uttar Pradesh, 4 million to Madhya Pradesh, 3 million to Gujarat, and 2.4 million to Haryana.
After complaints by the state government, it is learnt that the central government will now send 17 lakh (1.7 million) doses to Maharashtra.
Today Tope said the state has only two days of stock of COVID-19 vaccines, after which it will officially run out of vaccine doses for the immunisation drive. “We want at least 40 lakh [four million] vaccine doses every week,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Union minister Prakash Javadekar today said that 500,000 doses of the COVID19 vaccines were wasted in Maharashtra due to a lack of planning by the state government.
Odisha: Yesterday, Naba Kisor Das, Odisha’s health minister, wrote to the Union health minister, saying that by tomorrow, April 9, the state would have exhausted its stock of Covishield. He has asked for a supply of at least 10 days stock — 2.5 million vaccine doses.
“By 9th April, there will be stock out of Covishield vaccine in the entire State. This will adversely impact timely administration of the second dose of vaccine as well as delay in vaccination of citizens (45 years and above),” reads the Odisha health minister’s letter.
The letter also informs the central government that “due to shortage of vaccine, we have had to close nearly 700 vaccination centres in the State”. Of the total 1,400 functional sites for vaccination, only 755 were active on April 7.
Jharkhand: Today, Banna Gupta, health minister of Jharkhand, said that the state has COVID vaccine stock only for the next one to two days. “We have made a request to the Union Home Minister to immediately provide us around 10 lakh [1 million] vaccines for the first dose,” said Gupta.
Andhra Pradesh: In Andhra Pradesh, only 300,000 doses of COVID19 vaccine are available as of today. As per the Andhra chief minister’s office, the stocks will last for two days only.
Delhi: Satyendar Jain, health minister of Delhi, also said that vaccine doses in the national capital will last only 4-5 days.
Chhattisgarh: TS Singh Deo, health minister of Chhattisgarh, has said that the state has vaccine stock for only three days if the state vaccinates three lakh [300,000] people daily. Meanwhile, today, the state Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow all people above 18 years of age to get vaccinated against coronavirus.
Andhra Pradesh: As per news reports, two districts of Andhra Pradesh, Nellore and West Godavari, ran out of COVID-19 vaccines yesterday on April 7. A news report quoted an official of the state’s health and family welfare department as saying: “The Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das, had written to the Union government on March 26 requesting 1 crore doses of vaccine. The Union Ministry of Health replied on March 27 stating that 1,57,210 doses of the vaccine would reach the State by April 2. That consignment is still to arrive. The State now has 3.7 lakh doses [80 per cent of which is Covishield]. On an average we are vaccinating around 1.3 lakh people per day. Our stocks will run out in two days.”
Karnataka: K Sudhakar, health minister of Karnataka has said that the state is not short on vaccines. “I’ve been reiterating everyday that we’re receiving vaccines almost twice a week. Even now we have a stock of almost 25-30 Lakh [2.5-3 million] doses. Centre has assured me that in a couple of days they’ll send another 25 Lakh doses,” he said.
India kicked off COVID-19 vaccination drive on January 16 this year. In the last 24 hours, more than three million vaccination doses were administered in India. Cumulatively, over 90 million vaccine doses have been administered till today since the vaccination campaign was kicked off in the country on January 16.
Also Read: India surpasses the US in administering daily vaccine doses; some states report vaccine shortage
While many states complain of having limited vaccine doses, data shows that several states/Union Territories have not managed to administer the vaccine doses that were given to them back in mid-March.
As per the above data, states such as Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, and Assam have not yet completely utilised doses supplied to them as on March 17.