E-Paper
Over 4.80 mn Covid-19 vaccine doses to be distributed to states, UTs: Centre
As of May 23, the total consumption, including wastage, is 200,008,875 doses, the health minister also mentioned.
The Centre has provided 218,051,890 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine to states and the Union territories (UT), the Union ministry of health and family welfare said on Monday. Of these, 18,043,015 million vaccine doses are still available with the states and the UTs to be administered, the health ministry said.
More than 4.80 million vaccine doses are still in the pipeline and will be distributed to states within the next three days, the health ministry said. "Vaccination is an integral pillar of the comprehensive strategy of Government of India for containment and management of the pandemic, along with Test, Track, Treat and COVID Appropriate Behaviour," the health ministry said in a release on Monday. In addition, the government is also facilitating direct procurement of vaccines by the States and UTs, it also said.
As of May 23, the total consumption, including wastage, is 200,008,875 doses, the health minister also mentioned.
This comes as several states in the country, including the national capital, halted the vaccination drive for the people in the age group of 18-44. The Centre opened the immunisation drive against the coronavirus disease for all above 18 on May 1. However, it is yet to pick a pace in the country due to the shortage of vaccines leading to the unavailability of slots.
On Saturday, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal urged the Centre to increase the quota of Covid-19 vaccine for the national capital as it faces a huge crunch of the shots. Kejriwal also cited the temporary halt in the vaccination of people in the age group of 18-44 years to flag the shortage of doses in Delhi. Vaccine stocks for the age group are over and the centres where they were being administered have been shut, Kejriwal said.
Kejriwal further said that Delhi requires 80 lakh vaccine doses per month; "However, we only received 16 lakh vaccine doses for May," he said.
