E-Paper
Covid-19 vaccines: Is there real shortage in Odisha, Maharashtra? | All you need to know
The Centre has dismissed the claims of vaccine shortage while 'vaccine out of stock' board was put up at many centres on Thursday.
Contradictory claims over vaccine stock have been made since Maharashtra on Wednesday said that its vaccine stocks are depleting as it has massively increased the number of daily vaccinations. Several other states, including Odisha, claimed vaccination shortage. On Thursday, vaccination centres in Maharashtra, Odisha remained shut as those centres ran out of vaccines doses. The Centre has strongly refuted the claims.
Here is all you need to know about the present claims of vaccine shortage:
> The Centre has reiterated that there is no vaccine shortage in the country. And such a situation will not arise as vaccine distribution in being constantly monitored centrally.
> The alarms the states are raising are pre-emptive. For example, Maharashtra on Wednesday said its vaccine stock would last for three days. On Thursday, health minister Rajesh Tope said that Centre has increased its one-time allocation from 7 lakhs to 17 lakhs doses, which presumably will tide over the situation.
> Odisha has also written to the health ministry asking for additional allocation of vaccine doses as nearly 50 per cent of the centres were shut on Thursday as there were no vaccines. In Maharashtra too, several vaccine centres were temporarily shut on Thursday.
> Vaccine shortage can also take place because of the percentage of wastage. If one vaccination centre records more wastage than another, its stock will naturally be depleted soon. So this shortage also depends on specific vaccination centre.
> As all states are now increasing their daily vaccination capacity, their one-time allocation is getting over sooner than before. The Centre has warned states and Union territories against hoarding vaccines.
> All states are not allocated an equal number of doses. The doses that the Centre allots to a state or a UT depends on its population, its pace of vaccination.
> Supplying vaccines to states is an ongoing process and there is no one-time allocation of vaccines to states and UTs.
> The issue became a political one as Union health minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday issued a statement chastising Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh for "spreading panic among people".
> Maharashtra has the maximum number of people vaccinated but the percentage of its healthcare workers, frontline workers, senior citizens inoculated against the virus is not impressive, the health ministry has accused. The Maharashtra government, on the other hand, accused the Centre of allotting fewer doses to Maharashtra in comparison with Gujarat.
> India is administering Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Serum Institute of India's Covishield. Both are ramping up their production to meet the increased demand of vaccines in India after vaccination drive was opened to everyone above the age of 45.
