CHANDIGARH: Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu on Tuesday said that the state demanded 15 lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses from the Centre but received only 4 lakh doses which are sufficient for vaccination till April 15.
"We had demanded 15 lakh vaccine doses in meeting with Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan but received only 4 lakh doses on April 11, which is sufficient for vaccination till April 15," Sidhu said.
Earlier on April 10, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had said that the state has only five days of COVID-19 vaccines left. He took part in a meeting convened by Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi of Congress-ruled states and Congress ministers from alliance states to review the efforts to fight COVID-19 including the availability of vaccines, access to medicines and ventilators.
"Punjab is left with only five days of supply (5.7 lakh Covid vaccine doses) at the current levels of vaccinating 85000-90000 persons a day. If the state is able to meet its target of 2 lakh vaccines a day, then its current supplies will last only 3 days," the Punjab CM had said during the meeting held through video conference.
The Punjab Health Minister further informed that his teams are working round the clock to control the surge in COVID-19 infections in the state.
He added that the number of testing has increased from 100 per day since the pandemic started to 50,000 per day.
Punjab on Tuesday reported 3,003 new COVID-19 cases and 53 deaths, as per the state health officials.