No vaccine shortage in Maharashtra, says Centre

The central government on Friday denied that there was a vaccine shortage in Maharashtra, days after the state said it did not have enough doses.

On Wednesday, Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope had said there was a shortage of Covaxin in the state. The minister expected demand for Covaxin to exceed supplies in view of vaccination of 15-18 year olds and precautionary doses being administered. The state had asked for 40 lakh doses and was only supplied 10 lakh doses, the minister had said.

Maharashtra also required another 50 lakh doses of Covishield vaccines, Tope had said.

The central government said Maharashtra had over 24 lakh unutilised doses of Covaxin on January 14 and an additional 6.35 lakh doses were provided on Friday. “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,” the government said.

According to the health ministry, Maharashtra also has 1.24 crore unutilised doses of Covishield available with it. With 3.57 lakh doses being administered per day in the state, this stock would sustain vaccination for more than 30 days for those who needed Covishield, it said.India’s cumulative Covid-19 vaccination on Friday reached 156 crore doses. The Centre said it has provided 157.50 crore vaccine doses to states and Union Territories and there are 15.17 crore balance and unutilised doses available to be administered.