CHENNAI: The Centre on Friday described as "ill-informed and "incorrect" some media reports alleging vaccine shortage in Maharashtra, further stating that due to lack of vaccine the State Government is unable to increase the pace of vaccination in the state.
State health minister Rajesh Tope on Thursday said that Maharashtra is facing shortage of both Covaxin and Covishield vaccines.
He told reporters that since vaccination drive for teenagers and precaution doses are being given to senior citizens, frontline and health workers, there is a shortage of vaccine. Tope said that the state has demanded an additional 50 lakh Covishield and 40 lakh Covaxin doses from the Centre.
Meanwhile, a press statement issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare chose to clarify that, as per the reports available today (January 14, 2022), Maharashtra has over 24 lakh unutilized doses of Covaxin available with it. An additional 6.35 lakh doses have been received today. As per their weekly consumption data available on Co-WIN, the average consumption by Maharashtra for Covaxin to cover the eligible beneficiaries for 15-17 years and for precaution dose is almost 2.94 lakh doses per day. Therefore, the State has adequate vaccine doses for about 10 days to cover the eligible beneficiaries with Covaxin.
Furthermore, for Covishield, the state has 1.24 crore unutilized and balance doses available as on date. With an average consumption of 3.57 lakhs per day, this will sustain for more than 30 days for the beneficiaries to be vaccinated using the vaccine.
"Hence, the media reports are not factually correct and do not reflect the correct picture of the available stock of balance and unutilized COVID vaccine doses with Maharashtra," the Centre claimed.