Maharashtra Public Health Minister Rajesh Tope, who on Saturday participated at the launch of Covid-19 vaccination campaign at Jalna District Hospital, reiterated that the state has received fewer doses and will soon write a letter to the Centre with an appeal to send additional doses. The state has so far received 9.83 lakh doses against the total need of 17.50 lakh.
Tope said the state will need additional 7.67 lakh doses. The minister’s statement is important as the Centre has denied any discrimination in the allotment of doses to states.
"Eight lakh health workers have registered for vaccination on the Covin app. The state has so far received 9,83,000 doses, of which 9,63,000 alone have come from the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) and the remaining 20,000 from Bharat Biotech. The government will soon send a letter to the Centre to despatch remaining 7.67 lakh doses soon,’’ said Tope.
As reported by Free Press Journal earlier, Tope had said that the state has been able to acquire 55 per cent of the required number as of now taking into account 10% wastage.
However, the Union Health Ministry issued a clarification on Tope’s statement saying that there was no question of discrimination against any state in the allocation of vaccine doses. The ministry said, “Full initial procurement amount of 1.65 crore doses of Covishield and Covaxin vaccines allocated to all States/UTs in the proportion of healthcare workers database. There is no question of discrimination against any state in the allocation of vaccine doses. This is an initial lot of supply of vaccine doses and will be continuously replenished in the weeks to come.’’
On the issue of administering free vaccines to people Below Poverty Line (BPL), Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said the Centre has to convey its decision, and thereafter the state government will take its stand. Tope insisted that people BPL need to be vaccinated for free.
Meanwhile, till 7 pm, 18,338 health workers were administered the vaccine at 285 centres across Maharashtra on Saturday.
