Mumbai: The Centre has issued a clarification stating there was no vaccine shortage in Maharashtra as the state had over 24 lakh unutilised Covaxin doses; an additional 6.35 lakh doses were received on Friday. The Centre has said certain media reports alleging vaccine shortage in Maharashtra are ill-informed. As per reports available on Friday, Maharashtra had over 24 lakh unutilised doses of Covaxin available, with an additional 6.35 lakh doses being received 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 Centre said in the release.
For Covishield, the state has 1.24 crore unutilised and balanced 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,” the Centre said.
“Hence the media reports are not factually correct and do not reflect the correct picture of the available stock of balance and unutilised COVID vaccine doses with Maharashtra,” the Centre clarified.
Earlier, Maharashtra Public Health Minister Rajesh Tope had, in a written submission, urged the Centre to provide additional supply of vaccines to administer jabs to eligible beneficiaries in the 15-18 years’ age group. Further, he had demanded the supply 40 lakh Covaxin and 50 lakh Covishield vaccine doses under the universal immunisation programme. He said it was needed as the state was experiencing shortage of doses for administering health workers their booster shots and for the 15-18 years’ age group.
