Vaccine shortage: War of words continues between Maharashtra, Centre

A day after state health minister Rajesh Tope said there is a shortage of doses, many centres were shut in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Panvel, Satara, Sangli and various other parts of Maharashtra

Even as the state struggles with shortage of Covid-19 vaccine doses, antiviral drug Remdesvir and oxygen supply, the war of words between Maharashtra and the Central government continued for a second day. A day after state health minister Rajesh Tope said there is a shortage of doses, many centres were shut in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Panvel, Satara, Sangli and various other parts of Maharashtra. Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar said the drive may have to be halted in Mumbai after Friday, if doses are not sent.

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Tope, while talking to reporters on Thursday, questioned the “discrimination” being faced by Maharashtra in allotment of doses, when compared to other states. He said Maharashtra will require 4 million (40 lakh) doses per week to meet its target and reiterated the demand to open vaccination for all those above 18 years of age, like the US. He also said the state may run out of oxygen supply if cases continue to rise at the current rate of almost 60,000 infections per day. However, Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Prakash Javadekar said it is the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi’s (MVA) poor planning that has led to this situation.

“According to the latest release order of vaccines from the Centre, Maharashtra has been given 7.5 lakh vaccine doses only. While Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana have been given more than 30-40 lakh doses,” Tope said. He further said, “Why are we facing this discrimination when we have a population of 12 crore, the highest active cases and a positivity rate of 20-25%?”

Tope said the state has close to 900,000 doses, which will last for a day-and-a-half. Maharashtra has been vaccinating 400,000 to 450,000 people daily.

For the city, once the vaccine doses are collected from the Serum Institute of India (SII) in Pune, they are transported to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s cold storage facility in Parel. From there, the doses are distributed to the 118 vaccination centres in the city. The distribution load is considered on the basis of population of the area and response pattern of citizens. In case of private hospitals, 100 to 500 doses are distributed daily, considering private hospitals vaccinate only on the basis of appointments. In case of government centres, the allocation is done on the basis of population of the area, followed by anticipation of walk-in entries. Each centre gets 2,000 to 3000 doses every day.

For the state, the quantity of doses supplied to districts is decided based on the remaining stock. The stock is supplied to the districts based on the vaccination rate over the past few days and the stock required for the next few days. Expected number of beneficiaries after citizens above 45 years were deemed eligible has been ascertained in every district on the basis of population.

The plan is chalked out for the supply in the proportion of the stock the state gets from the Centre. Each district is given stock for an average of three days.

On the shortage of dose, Tope said the Centre has assured corrections will be made soon.

“The Centre is going to supply 17 lakh doses after April 15. But this will also be less. We need 40 lakh doses every week because our target is to vaccinate 6 lakh people per day. Today, we have close to 9 lakh doses, which will last 1.5 days. Vaccination in many districts has already been shut,” Tope said. He said that even though Gujarat’s population is half of Maharashtra and has 17,000 active cases, both states were given equal doses. Several states had said they will run out of doses within days and requested the Centre for replenishments, resulting in a strong rebuttal from Union health minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday.

He accused three states, particularly Maharashtra, of politicising the issue. In his statement, the minister blamed the state government for misgovernance and “utter casual approach” in its battle against the virus.

“I do not want to get into any debates. I am requesting the union health minister to provide the requisite doses. As for the comments on Maharashtra’s performance, the state has been following all the protocols as provided by the Centre,” Tope said.

On Thursday, Javadekar said, “Maharashtra has 23 lakh doses, which is sufficient for five days. Doses for another three days are also in the pipeline. In fact, every state has stock for 3-4 days. Once the doses are sent to the state, it is the state’s responsibility to send it to districts. Maharashtra has wasted 5 lakh doses of vaccine because of its poor planning,” Javadekar said in a press conference in Delhi.

On Thursday evening, union health minister Harsh Varshan tweeted, “Hue & cry by certain States about partisanship by the Union Govt is just a farce, an attempt to hide their own incompetence. Maharashtra and Rajasthan are 2 of the top 3 States based on allocation of #COVID19Vaccine doses. Both are non-BJP governed States.” He shared a slide stated that Maharashtra has received 1,06,19,190 doses, followed by Gujarat and Rajasthan that have also received more than a crore doses.

Tope said that the Central government must ask neighbouring states of Maharashtra to provide oxygen supply to the state. “As of now, we have sufficient supply but if the cases continue to rise, there will be shortage in the next 10 days. Centre must ask neighbouring states to provide supply to Maharashtra,” Tope said.

The Centre and state had also locked horns over the issue of oxygen supply. The Centre’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade had objected to Maharashtra government’s decision to reserve 80% oxygen supply for medical and pharmaceutical purposes.

On Thursday, Tope said the state has stock of oxygen, but would need more if the spike in cases continues.

“If the current speed of about 60,000 daily new cases continues, we would need oxygen so we are requesting Centre to provide the same from other states,” he said.

Tope also said that the state will also ask the Central government to increase the supply of Remdesivir medicine and cap the prices. “Various local bodies are calling me stating that there is a shortage of Remdesvir. The Central government should also look into the black-marketing of Remdesvir. Unfortunately, the medicine is not produced in Maharashtra. We need to procure adequate stock from the companies. We will address this issue in a meeting with the prime minister today,” he said. He also said that cost of the medicine needs to be reduced from ₹4,000 to ₹1,200 to make it affordable for the common man. On Thursday, there were queues outside chemist shops in several parts of the state owing to the shortage of the medicine.