As the third phase of the COVID-19 vaccination kicked off across India, all the adults aged 18 and above lined up at various vaccination centers to take their first jab. Although, many states have already flagged off shortage of vaccines and postponed the program for the age group. Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey said that the vaccination (for people above 18 years of age) will start as soon as the state receives new stock of vaccine.
The state will be receiving around 16 lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses in May out of which 11.89 lakh doses of Covishield and 4.14 lakh doses of Covaxin.
He also said that the central government has allocated 44,500 vials of Remdesivir to Bihar out of which 27,000 vials have reached the state. 20,000 of them have been sent to different hospitals.
Yesterday, the next phase of vaccination for those above 18 years of age will not begin in Bihar from May 1, a top health official said, citing inability of Serum Institute of India (SII) in supplying the vaccines in bulk.
Manoj Kumar, executive director of Bihar State Health Society said on Thursday that Serum Institute of India had refused to supply one crore vials of the vaccine demanded by the Bihar government. Instead, the Institute wanted the state government to place its monthly requirement.
As of now, the state of Bihar has more than 1 lakh active covid cases. The capital Patna tops the list with over 17,000 active cases of Covid-19 during the current wave. But this month, five other districts with a large rural population have registered an increase of more than 4,000 active cases: Gaya (7,703 cases are active), Muzaffarpur (5,406 cases), Saran (4,778 cases), Begusarai (4,675 cases), Aurangabad (4,364 cases) as per data.
