Amid shortage of vaccine doses, not all the States will be able to begin their vaccination drive for those above 18 years from May1.
Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Delhi, and Andhra Pradesh are among others who have expressed their inability to begin inoculation drive from May 1.
Shortage of vaccines
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Thursday that the State has ordered for Covishield and Covaxin but both the vaccine manufacturers said they won’t be able to deliver so soon due to production constraints.
“As and when vaccine manufacturing happens, we will try vaccinating the citizens for free as production has also its limits. We hope we will get the stock by May 15 ,” Shivraj Singh Chouhan said Thursday in a video message.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal told a digital press conference on Friday that “vaccines are not available as yet” and those aged between 18-44 should not queue up at vaccination centres on Saturday.
“As soon as the vaccine comes, we will make proper announcements. Only then people with appointments can start coming to the centres,” he added.
Meanwhile, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani also said on Thursday that the phase 3 inoculation drive will likely begin from May 15 instead of May 1 due to shortage of vaccine stock with pharma companies. When the State has enough inventory, it will begin inoculating the people.
Meanwhile, according to media reports, Andhra Pradesh Health Department Principal Secretary Anil Kumar Singhal said on Wednesday that the state government is in consultation with ‘all three companies’ for anti-Covid vaccine procurement.
According to him, though the Centre has declared eligibility for vaccination to people above 18 from May 1 but that doesn’t mean vaccinating would also start from that date.
Similarly, as per reports, Punjab health department also said it would not be possible to implement vaccination from May 1 for those above 18 years of age because of shortage of anti-Covid jabs.
Corona count
Meanwhile, India reported more than 3.8 lakh daily Covid-19 cases on Thursday at 3,86,452 with 3,498 deaths in the last 24 hours till 8:00 AM, according to the Health Ministry website. Cumulatively, the infection cases stood at 1,87,62,976 out of which total active cases were 31,70,228 , recovered were 1,53,84,418 and the death toll stood at 2,08,330 till 8:00 AM on Friday.
So far, India has administered 15,22,45,179 vaccine doses till 8:00 AM on Thursday with 22,24,548 doses given in a single day. In addition, the government said it has so far provided nearly 16.33 crore vaccine doses to States/UTs free of cost of which the total consumption including wastages is 15,33,56,503 doses.
Meanwhile, more than 1 crore Covid vaccine doses at 1,00,28,527 are still available with the States/UTs to be administered. Nearly 20 lakh vaccine doses will be received in addition by the States/UTs within the next three days, it added.