As India started the vaccination drive for the age group of 18-44 years from today onwards, many states place on hold the planned nationwide COVID-19 immunisation programme citing paucity of the vaccine.
Last month, the nation witnessed the highest demand for COVID vaccines in a month. According to reports, about 90.50 million doses had been administered by 6:30 PM on April 30, 2021.
According to the information out there with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the nation administered about 64.36 million doses in the initial 3 months this year —3.71 million in January 10.05 million in February and 50.60 million doses in March.
There are also reports emerging that the priority group i.e. these above 45 years, is also not acquiring vaccines regardless of pre-booked appointments.
The MoHFW in a statement dismissed the allegation as raised by many states concerning shortages of vaccines. In a statement, the ministry stated that it had offered 159.60 million doses of vaccines so far to states and Union Territories at totally free of expense. It additional added that about 148.98 million doses waste. Several states such as Delhi, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab have currently declared their inability to start off the COVID-19 vaccination above 18 years, citing shortages of sufficient doses of vaccine.
Speaking to news agency ANI, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Saturday stated that as there are shortages, the vaccination centres in Pune has been closed for the next two days. “We had planned a big event for today but we received only 3 lakh doses. Out of that 20,000 have been given to the Pune district. Today we don’t have vaccines to inoculate people aged 45 yrs & above. Hence vaccination centres in Pune dist are closed for the next 2 days,” Pawar told ANI.
In the last 24 hours, India reported its highest single-day rise of 4,01,993 coronavirus infections and 3,523 deaths. At present, the country’s active instances stand at 32,68,710. A total of 15,49,89,635 have been vaccinated so far.