Covid-19 vaccination drive hit as states run out of stock
As per data available on the Centre's CoWin platform, 1.33 million doses were administered on Sunday, which is the lowest since May 30 when 1.11 million doses were administered.
The critical shortage of Covid-19 vaccines has crippled the vaccination drive in several states with government data showing a drop in the average daily inoculation since June 21 – when the drive was opened to everyone above 18 years of age.
As per data available on the Centre's CoWin platform, 1.33 million doses were administered on Sunday, which is the lowest since May 30 when 1.11 million doses were administered. The figure rose to 4.04 million by 10 pm on Monday. An average of 6.21 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines were administered daily in the last week of June which dropped to 4.18 million in the first few days of July. Between July 5 and 11, the daily average vaccine doses further dipped to 3.50 million doses.
The country’s per day vaccination had peaked on June 21, at 8.87 million, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the new phase of universalisation of Covid-19 vaccination.
On Monday, the health ministry said over 15.4 million balance and unutilised Covid-19 vaccine doses are still available with the states, UTs and private hospitals to be administered.
“Normally, fewer vaccinations are reported on Sunday when fewer vaccinations sites operate,” a health ministry official said, wishing not to be named.
India has so far administered 376.29 million doses to 303.01 million people since January 16, 2021, when the national Covid-19 vaccination drive was launched.
“We are preparing to administer close to 10 million doses in a single day by August,” Dr NK Arora, chairman of the working group on Covid-19 vaccines, had said in June.
In Delhi, government officials said the national capital has run out of Covishield stock and some vaccinations are likely to remain shut on Tuesday. “Why is our country’s vaccine programme faltering even after so many days?” Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia tweeted.
Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope told news agency PTI that the state has the capacity to vaccinate 1.5 million people daily, but as of now, only 200,000 to 300,000 people are being inoculated due to shortage of stock. In Odisha, the drive was halted in 24 out of 30 districts with state health secretary P K Mohapatra saying that the next consignment of Covishield vaccine was expected to arrive on July 15.
Madhya Pradesh immunisation officer Santosh Shukla issued an order saying that the state has run out of vaccines and no drive will take place on Monday and Wednesday (vaccination days). “We were regularly receiving doses but the manufacturers have limited supply,” state medical education minister Vishwas Sarang said.
Rajasthan health secretary Siddharth Mahajan said the state received only 3.163 million vaccine doses, an average of 0.175 million doses, between June 21 and July 8. Jharkhand government officials said the state has the capacity to administer 0.15 million doses everyday but only 19,586 people were inoculated on Sunday. Bihar also recorded its lowest vaccination on Sunday after it administered only 18,064 doses.
Former Niti Aayog vice chairperson Arvind Panagariya on Monday tweeted: “India’s current vaccination rate of 3 to 4 million per day is simply not good enough.”