India’s vaccine shortage continues; States halt vaccinations
16 May, 2021 | newsx bureau
Amid ongoing vaccination drive, many states are facing vaccine shortage with chaos, confusion and mismanagement across the country. States have expressed doubts for phase three of the vaccination d...
Amid ongoing vaccination drive, many states are facing vaccine shortage, this has created chaos, confusion and mismanagement across the country with citizens tussling for vaccines. People are unable to book slots for vaccines and are being turned away from the centres even after booking for the slots.
India, to take the step to vaccinate adults has become a massive challenge. People are Swarming in the vaccination centres but there are no vaccines. States have expressed doubts on whether they will be able to give phase three of the vaccination drive.
Delhi government has announced the vaccine shortage saying, some amount of Covishield is available which will only last for 3-4 days only and the centres for Covaxin doses have been already closed down. Rajdhani hospital, vaccine centre in Delhi where people came in thousands of numbers in the line are now empty.
Also read: States battle vaccine shortage: Eye on producing 10 million vaccine doses per day
The number of doses received so far in Delhi is 41,22,310 and the number of doses consumed is 37,55,578. Amid vaccine shortage Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has written a letter to PM Modi, suggesting to share Anti-COVID 19 formula with not only two manufacturers but to other companies as well.
Maharashtra, one of the most severely affected states, especially by the second wave so far, received 1,82,52,450 doses and has consumed 1,77,43,694 doses. Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope has announced that the state’s vaccination drive against Covid-19 for those in the age group of 18-44 will be put on hold due to a “shortage of doses.”
The Maharashtra government has started negotiations with many foreign suppliers like Sputnik and Pfizer to bring the maximum number of vaccine supply for the state.
Several states, which have been witnessing a huge surge of cases in the past few weeks, were forced to shut vaccination centers amid vaccine shortage even as the third phase is underway.
Since the shortage in supply of vaccine, after Uttar Pradesh and Mumbai’s civic body, four more states are trying to reach out to global tenders for vaccine doses, this includes the governments of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Odisha and Uttarakhand.