Bengal, like some of the other states, is facing a vaccine shortage with allotments from the Centre not coming “as per schedule”, alleged Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Against a request for 14 crore doses, the state was allotted 2.12 crore doses so far.

It has till date administered approximately 2.5 crore jabs, of which 1.81 core are first doses and the remaining of nearly 70 lakh being second doses.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, the West Bengal Chief Minister urged for 11.5 crore more doses to “cover all eligible people”. Bengal has on an average been administering 300,000 doses per day; against a capacity of administering 10 lakh doses a day, the letter claimed.

In July, the state was allotted 73 lakh doses.

The officials of state health department say vaccination numbers have been fluctuating on a daily basis. For instance, on July 11 (a Sunday) a total of 87,912 doses were administered while on July 14 around 3,14,000 doses were administered. On July 7, the state administered 1,56,346 while a day later it shot up to 2,42,110.

“The Centre and BJP out of political vendetta are not allotting us sufficient quantities of vaccines. We are amongst the best performers and there is practically no wastage of vaccines here,” the Chief Minister alleged.

Poor Vaccine Policy

Meanwhile, several government-run centres in the suburbs or sub divisional hospitals in the districts have claimed to run short on doses thereby leading to protests and demonstrations by locals.

According to Santanu Sen, MP of the Trinamool Congress and a past national President of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), India is the only country “where there are three different prices for the same vaccine” and it is “completely unethical”.

“We are facing problems in Bengal because of wrong policies of the Centre. First states are not allowed to make separate purchases themselves. Secondly, allotments by the Centre are ad hoc. Finally, we need to block at least 50 per cent of our allotted doses to prioritise administering second jabs. This is slowing down the entire vaccination process, especially the first dosages,” he told BusinessLine .

Sen further alleged that the Centre is not clearing dues of vaccine-makers which has slowed down the entire vaccination process. Moreover, there is a push towards the private hospitals (where jabs are not free) “in a concerted way”.

“We have reliably learnt that dues of vaccine makers are not being cleared on time. So they have slowed down supplies. However, the private hospitals are making upfront payment and naturally they are getting preference in supplies. So if government hospitals or jab centres run dry, these players will definitely benefit and people will fork out more at the private hospitals,” he claimed.

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