CHANDIGARH/JAIPUR/MUMBAI: Punjab is the latest state to complain of vaccine shortage, even as Chief Minister Amarinder Singh went to the extent of blaming the “massive anger” among the people over the new farm laws for slow pace of vaccination in the state.
Even then, Punjab is left with only five days of supply (5.7 lakh doses) at the current levels of vaccinating 85-90,000 persons a day, Amarinder said during a video conference called by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
Singh said he had written to the Prime Minister and the Union health minister to share the supply schedule with states based on their confirmed orders.
He said if the state met its target of two lakh vaccines a day, then its current supplies would last only three days. This is despite the slow vaccination because of the people’s support to the farming community for their agitation, he said. “Their anger against the new farm laws was impacting the vaccination drive,” Amarinder said.
The crisis is escalating in Rajasthan too, with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot saying in a separate statement that since the next stocks of 3.83 lakh doses would arrive on April 12, the inoculation would have to be stopped in many districts on Sunday, when the ‘tika utsav’ proposed by the PM begins.
The crisis in Maharashtra, too, continues. State health minister Rajesh Tope claimed Maharashtra had 8 lakh doses available and had been promised four lakh doses in a day while Union minister Prakash Javadekar said the state had a stock of 15.63 lakh doses and called for "proper distribution".