Centre in Denial as Shortage of Vaccine Forces States to Shut Down Their Vaccination Centres

THD NewsDesk, New Delhi: The lack of availability of covid vaccines has put the states with rising covid numbers in a tight spot.  Five states, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have come forward and complained about the shortage of vaccines.  The Odisha government was forced to shut down 700 of its vaccination centres due to a scarcity of covid vaccines. Odisha has vaccine storage only for two more days. 

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in a letter to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan informed that as of April 7, Odisha had a stock of 5.34 lakh doses of Covishield.

“With this stock, we will be able to continue vaccination for the next two days,” Patnaik said. “By 9th April, there will be stock-out of Covishield vaccines in the entire state,” he said. 

Patnaik said this will impact timely administration of the second dose of vaccine as well as delay in vaccination of citizens who are 45 years and above. 

Patnaik explained that this issue was spoken to the health ministry multiple times but no fruitful outcome has come out of it. “Therefore, I would like to draw your kind attention to this matter and request you to lake necessary steps for supplying at least 10 days’ stock ie. 25 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine to the state immediately for effective vaccination of the targeted population,” the letter reads

Another worst affected state is Maharastra, which is contributing to the maximum numbers of coronavirus cases in the country.  Maharashtra has warned that the states will be forced to halt vaccination for 4-5 days next week and is in urgent need of more vaccines.

Places Satara, Panvel and Sangli in Maharashtra have already stopped vaccination due to the shortage. However, the centre has denied the claims of shortage. 

Meanwhile, in Mumbai, vaccine stock at 26 centres are exhausted. 20 more centres are likely to exhaust their doses by Thursday. Mumbai has 120 designated inoculation centres.

Maharashtra has a stock of 15.76 doses of Covaxin and Covishield. Authorities say these are likely to be exhausted in three days.

Amidst the shortage, there are accusations on the centre regarding the distribution of the vaccine. Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope complained that the state had received fewer vaccine doses from the Centre in the latest round of allotments. Government data showed that Maharashtra got 7.5 lakh doses, Uttar Pradesh 48 lakh, Madhya Pradesh 40 lakh, Gujarat 30 lakh and Haryana 24 lakh doses, The New Indian Express reported.