Jharkhand, which has rolled out the second round of special Covid-19 vaccination drive at the panchayat level, may soon face shortage of vaccines if no fresh consignment arrives in the state in a couple of days, sources in the state health department said.
According to available information, the state was left with 23,760 doses of Covaxin of Bharat Biotech, and 327,780 doses of Covishield of Serum Institute of India, Pune.
However, state National Health Mission (NHM) director Ravishankar Shukla denied the stock shortage, while confirming the number of the remaining stock of doses. “There is no shortage of vaccine as of now. We have been informed that a consignment of Covaxin will arrive in the state in the second week of this month. We still have around 25,000 doses of this vaccine. An order has been issued to districts not to use Covaxin for the first dose. It will be only given to those who have already taken its first dose,” he said.
The state has targeted to inoculate over one lakh beneficiaries every day under the special vaccination drive that was launched on April 4.
{{/usCountry}}The state has targeted to inoculate over one lakh beneficiaries every day under the special vaccination drive that was launched on April 4.
{{/usCountry}}Against the target of 114,800 beneficiaries fixed for the first day, as many as 80,184 were given the first dose, accounting for 70% target achievement.
Considering the current pace of vaccination coverage, the state has a limited stock of vaccines as of now.
It has so far received a total of 2,074,760 doses of Covishield, and 237,760 doses of Covaxin.
The NHM director said, “The state has over 3 lakh doses of Covishield and its next consignment may arrive shortly, may be tomorrow (Tuesday) or day after tomorrow. So, we can’t say that there is shortage of vaccine in the state.”
Amid the looming crisis of vaccine shortage, the state was also witnessing a steep rise in the number of positive cases.
In the last six days, the state reported 4,156 new cases with an average daily detection of around 700 cases. These cases were discovered after testing 92,573 samples. The positivity rate in the last six days stood at 4.48%. Fatality rate too rose, as 20 deaths were reported in this duration.
According to the state health department’s bulletin of April 4, Jharkhand has so far reported 127,246 Covid-19 cases, including 120,872 recoveries, 5,244 active cases and 1,130 deaths.