Across many states in India, there are no vaccines despite the government’s plan to vaccinate the majority by December 2021.
Jairam Ramesh former Union Minister, from the Congress party, said, “Rajasthan has put in place capacity to administer 15 lakh doses A DAY, and has already done 10 lakh doses a day. But Modi govt has allocated only 49 lakh doses to RJ for THE ENTIRE MONTH of July.
How will we vaccinate India if @PMOIndi divides India into BJP and non-BJP states?
Rajasthan has put in place capacity to administer 15 lakh doses A DAY, and has already done 10 lakh doses a day. But Modi govt has allocated only 49 lakh doses to RJ for THE ENTIRE MONTH of July.
How will we vaccinate India if @PMOIndia divides India into BJP and non-BJP states?— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) July 9, 2021
In other states as well there are not enough Covid vaccines to inoculate the population. The health ministers of Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand said during a virtual press conference on Sunday that their states do not have enough Covid-19 vaccines to begin the third phase of the nationwide inoculation drive on May 1.
Chhattisgarh can vaccinate eligible population in 30-40 days: TS Singh Deo
TS Singh Deo, the Health Minister of Chhattisgarh, said the third phase of the inoculation drive will be funded by states but the vaccination receipts have the photo of the Prime Minister. “The Centre has put the onus on states to roll out, but when vaccines are not available, how can we perform this duty,” said Deo.
The Chhattisgarh minister also said that arrangements are in place in the state to vaccinate 3.5-4 lakh people each day. For a population of 1.2 crore, which is people above 18 years of age, it would take 30-40 days to complete the drive if the Centre supplies enough vaccines, said TS Singh Deo. Chhattisgarh has done remarkable work in vaccinating its population for free, bearing the cost of the vaccine themselves, and most of the industries are open too.
The Punjab and Rajasthan chief ministers wrote to the Union Health Minister urging him to increase the COVID-19 vaccine supply as well as several other governments, ed the entire production capacity of the two vaccine manufacturers, he claimed.
“We are not able to procure vaccines from them despite the fact that we are ready to pay,” said the Jharkhand Health Minister. How can all the states manage to vaccinate their population when facing shortages of supply, asked Banna Gupta while also questioning the Centre’s decision to export vaccines.
In West Bengal, there is a shortage of doses which hindered the launch of the free COVID vaccination drive. The state government had earlier said it will continue to give priority to the groups it has identified as “superspreaders” and raise the number of daily vaccination depending on supply.
The West Bengal government had termed hawkers and vegetable vendors, bus conductors, drivers as “superspreaders”.
Under the centralized vaccination policy, the Centre will obtain 75% of vaccines from the open market and give them to states for free distribution to inoculate all citizens above the age of 18. It will also handle the 25% vaccination that was with states till now under the liberalised plan announced earlier.
India, however, saw the pace of COVID-19 vaccination sinking from the record high of over 8.6 million doses on one day particularly day with the highest vaccine drive to 5.3 million doses being administered the next day.
The decline was especially seen in the state of Madhya Pradesh, where less than 5,000 people were vaccinated after inoculating over 1.5 million people the previous day.
In Karnataka, which had inoculated over 1 million doses on the high drive day saw numbers drop to 392,536 doses a day later.
The bottom line is, India is vaccine deplete and unable to cope with supplying sufficient vaccines to each state to facilitate nationwide vaccinations despite their claims of being able to do so.
It is imperative the government designate more pharmaceutical companies to develop their own vaccines to enable an intensified supply of vaccines to the nation, India can never be vaccinated at this slow pace, and in the meantime, new variants of COVID-19 will emerge.