1 Cr doses still with states, more stocks in 2-3 days, says Health Minister on vaccine shortage

Mangalore Today News Network / Yahoo

New Delhi, April 29, 2021:      Denying allegation of vaccine shortages in states, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said that the vaccine has been allotted to states as per their performance. He said that 16 crore doses have been delivered to the state out of which only 15 crore have been administered.

 

“That means over 1 crore doses are still left with states. Some lakh doses are in pipeline & will be delivered in next 2-3 days. Since beginning of vaccination, not a single day has passed when states were not given vaccine doses as per their capacity,” the health minister said.

Delhi government said it has run out of Covid vaccines and it is awaiting fresh supplies from the private companies. State Health Minister Satyendra Jain said the public will be informed when the stocks are replenished. “We don’t have vaccines as of now. We have made requests to the company regarding vaccines, we will tell you when it comes,” Mr Jain said. He also said the manufacturers are yet to provide a schedule of vaccine supply to the Delhi government. The comments come two days before the government widen the inoculation to include people between 18-44 years of age.

This comes as India reported 3,79,257 new Covid-19 cases, 3,645 deaths and 2,69,507 discharges in the last 24 hours. The central government has provided nearly 16 crore doses of Covid vaccines to States and Union Territories free of cost so far. More than 1 crore doses are still available with the States and the UTs to be administered. The government will provide 20 Lakh more doses to the States and UTs in the next 3 days.

There are currently 30 lakh active cases in the country while the total vaccination in the country has crossed 15 crore mark today. Around 1.33 crore people applied for vaccination on Wednesday while 80 lakh people registered on Wednesday as the government’s dedicated website, CoWIN, opened for registrations on Wednesday.

The ministry said that it witnessed more than 80 lakh people registered themselves on the portal, with 3 hours from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm. It added that the portal received 383 million API hits, initially as high as 2.7 million hits per minute and a total of 1.45 crore SMSs have been successfully delivered.

Those above 45 years of age can still avail the facility of on-site registration to get vaccinated, they had said. As India witnesses a surge in COVID-19 cases, it has decided to allow all citizens above 18 years of age to get vaccinated from May 1.

Delhi recorded 368 more COVID-19 deaths and 25,986 new cases of the infection on Wednesday with a positivity rate of 31.76 per cent, according to the latest bulletin issued by the city health department. This is the seventh day on the trot that Delhi has recorded over 300 deaths due to the coronavirus.

The city had reported 381 deaths on Tuesday, the highest since the pandemic began a year ago, 380 on Monday, 350 on Sunday, 357 on Saturday, 348 on Friday and 306 on Thursday, according to government data.