India is currently witnessing the second wave of COVID-19 and reported more than 1.2 lakh new infections on Wednesday, the highest single-day spike ever since the beginning of the pandemic.
A vaccination centre in Mumbai stops the drive as it runs out of stock | Pic/Ashish Rane
Amid a massive spike in COVID-19 cases in India, several states including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Jharkhand, are facing coronavirus vaccine shortage.
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India is currently witnessing the second wave of COVID-19 and reported more than 1.2 lakh new infections on Wednesday, the highest single-day spike ever since the beginning of the pandemic.
Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Thursday said the state is facing a vaccine shortage and demanded 40 lakh doses every week from the Centre.
"I have just been informed that the Centre increased COVID-19 vaccine doses from seven lakhs to 17 lakhs. Even this is less because we need 40 lakh vaccine doses a week and 17 lakh doses are not enough," Tope added.
Satara, Sangli, Panvel have stopped vaccination today while Buldhana has only today's vaccine stock left, Tope said.
The Maharashtra Health Minister added that according to the latest release order of vaccines by the Centre, Maharashtra was only given 7.5 lakh vaccine dosages. While Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana have been given far more vaccines than Maharashtra, he claimed.
The situation is no different in Jharkhand with the state Health Minister Banna Gupta saying the state is left with vaccine stock for only a couple of days. "We have stock for the next 1-2 days. We have made a request to the Union Home Minister and I am hopeful that he will provide us the vaccine," Gupta said.
"Around 18,27,800 vaccines have been administered as the first dose and 2,78,000 vaccines as the second dose. We have spoken to Union Health Minister and requested him to immediately provide us around 10 lakh vaccines for the first dose. We will get it either today or tomorrow," he added.
On being asked whether any district of the state facing a shortage of vaccines, he said, "We do have vaccines available with us but there has been a shortage at some locations. So we have spoken to Union Health Minister."
Terming Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan's remarks "unfortunate" that the Chhattisgarh government was spreading misinformation and panic on COVID19 vaccination, state Health Minister TS Singh Deo on Wednesday had said such remarks affect the joint efforts in the fight against the pandemic.
"It's right and worrisome that mortality is increasing in the state but saying that vaccination isn't being done here is false. Centre's data show that Chhattisgarh is one of the top four states of the nation that have vaccinated more than 10 per cent of its population," he added.
Singh Deo said the state has a stock of vaccines for the next three days and has been assured that supply will continue (from the Centre).
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