Almost 10 states in the country are facing shortage of vaccine stocks as coronavirus cases continue to rise in India. On Wednesday, Maharashtra witnessed the halting of the vaccination drive in Gondia district of Nagpur as only 20 doses of vaccine were left. Also, the vaccination has slowed down in Yavatmal, Buldhana, Akola and Washim, along with 9 other states such as Odisha, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, UP, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. They all have vaccine stocks of only 3-4 days, thus hitting the plans to speed up vaccination. Many of these states are expecting that the doses will arrive soon and are pushing the Centre for refills.

Odisha has got the intimation that they would receive 3.49 lakh doses of Covishield after 15th April. Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, State additional chief secretary (health) wrote to Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan for seeking immediate supply of 15 to 20 lakh doses of Covishield. They have only 6.5 lakh vaccine doses left in stock that can vaccinate people for three more days.

Andhra Pradesh is also facing a similar difficulty as its next big consignment of 10.8 lakh vaccine doses is expected to come around 15th April. The state too can manage to vaccinate people for 3-4 days. Following Wednesday’s vaccination, West Bengal too has around 12 lakh vaccine doses left.

Jai Pratap Singh, UP health minister said that there is no shortage of vaccines but the present stock of 12.33 lakh doses will last for about 3-4 days. Punjab’s existing stock of about 5 lakh doses will manage vaccination for 4 more days. It has raised a demand of about 15 lakh vaccine doses. The situation is comparable in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Uttarakhand.

The vaccine shortage has also hit the plans to speed up vaccination in several states. Rajasthan had ramped up to 5 lakh vaccine doses in a day on Tuesday and Wednesday. But, their plan to vaccinate 7 lakh each day has now hit due to the shortage of vaccines. In Tamil Nadu, too, the stock of 18 lakh doses is left and will be managed for six days.

Source: ET Healthworld