Maha vaccination drive slows down

With inadequate supply from the Centre and lack of clarity from suppliers, the current vaccine shortage in Maharashtra is likely to continue for a few more weeks, according to state officials, which means, the vaccination drive for those above 45 years of age will go on at a slow pace, while it will remain suspended for the 18-44 age group

With inadequate supply from the Centre and lack of clarity from suppliers, the current vaccine shortage in Maharashtra is likely to continue for a few more weeks, according to state officials, which means, the vaccination drive for those above 45 years of age will go on at a slow pace, while it will remain suspended for the 18-44 age group.

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To make matters worse, the global tender floated by the government to import 50 million vaccine doses haven’t got a response from any vaccine manufacturer or supplier till May 20, forcing it to extend the date for submission of tenders till May 25.

The Central government provides free vaccine doses for those in the 45 and above age group, but for the beneficiaries in the 18-44 age group, the stock has to be procured by the state government.

So far, the state has procured a total of 1,989,150 doses for the 18-44 age group and has inoculated 661,016 people with first doses. The remaining stock of 1,328,134 doses is diverted for people in the 45+ age bracket, as it is not getting adequate supply from the Centre, said a senior health department official.

Officials say the decision to suspend the drive for the 18-44 age group was taken owing to two reasons – Indian manufacturers have not given any confirmed supply schedule and shortage of doses for those above 45, especially for those who are due for second dose. They said the decision to resume vaccination for the 18-44 age group will be taken only when the supply is regular, which does not seem possible in the coming weeks.

On Saturday, the state expects to get another stock of 521,000 doses purchased by it, but it will also be used for the 45+ age group. In addition, it will also get 26,460 doses from the Centre’s allocation.

“We are expected to receive a stock of 547,460 Covishield doses on Saturday. The entire stock will be used for beneficiaries in the 45+ age group. This will continue until the state government decides to resume vaccination drive for the 18-44 age group,” said Dr Archana Patil, director, Directorate Of Health Services. “The responsibility of making the vaccine stock available is of the Centre. The state government had prepared to vaccinate people in big numbers. We have ramped up our capacity to cover 8-10 lakh beneficiaries a day, but are vaccinating with whatever is being made available to us. This is the reason we have decided to prioritize those due for the second dose and whatever is left is being used for the first dose of beneficiaries from the 45+ age group,” said state health minister Rajesh Tope. “We are following up on the issue of shortage with the Centre. We decided to suspend the vaccination drive for the 18-44 age group only to cover those who are due for second dose from 45 and above age group,” said Ajit Pawar, deputy chief minister in Pune.

Serum Institute of India (SII) had promised to supply 10 million doses of Covishield per month for 18-44 age group and Bharat Biotech too had assured to provide a Covaxin stock of 2.5 million doses a month, but both are yet to give any supply schedule to the state, said a senior official, requesting anonymity. In the meantime, the Centre has also decided to regulate the 50% stock expected to be divided among the states and private hospitals etc. It means that stock will also be allocated by the Centre. This is being done to ensure adequate supplies to all states,” he added.

By inoculating a total of 20,593,148 beneficiaries, Maharashtra is still at the top among all the states. The state government was also hoping to import vaccine to ramp up the vaccination drive but its move to invite bids from international market has not yielded anything yet.

The state floated an express of interest (EOI) on Monday (May 17) to procure 50 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccines approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Food and Drug Administration, and are being manufactured in other countries. The closing date was May 20.

“As we have not got any response, the state government has decided to extend its deadline to May 25,” health minister Tope said on Friday.

The state government is aiming at importing the doses of the vaccines manufactured by Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Zydus Cadila, among others. “We have tried to bring in laxity in tender rules for procuring the stock, but whatever comes under the Centre’s jurisdictions will have to be decided by them only. We want the Centre to formulate an integrated policy over distribution of vaccine stock and also decide which foreign vaccine is suitable for our country,” he stressed.

The shortage of vaccines resulted in a drastic drop in the weekly vaccination rate. Between May 15 and 22, 842,501 people were inoculated, against 1,834,369 in the preceding week of May 8-14 and 1,433,165 during May 1-7. In the last week of April, 2,080,998 doses were given. On Friday, 119,973 beneficiaries were inoculated, according to the Co-Win portal.