COVID-19 vaccination for people above 18 years deferred in several States
The part three of inoculation drive protecting all adults is scheduled to start on May 1
Several States together with Delhi, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have deferred the third part of COVID-19 vaccination drive, which is scheduled to be rolled out for all adults from May 1. Punjab, Gujarat, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh too have flagged scarcity of vaccine.
Delhi Chief Minister on Friday stated all residents can be vaccinated towards COVID-19 in the following three months, however appealed to residents towards queuing up outdoors vaccination centres in the Capital from Saturday.
“Our intent is to ensure that all the citizens of Delhi are vaccinated against COVID in the next 3 months. We are yet to receive vaccine shots to be administered and are in touch with the company manufacturing it; we should start receiving it over two to three days,” Mr. Kejriwal stated throughout a digital briefing. “My appeal to the people is to not start queuing up outside vaccination centres so that social distancing and law and order issues don’t arise,” he added.
Karnataka’s Health and Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar too made an identical enchantment. “We have placed orders for one crore doses of vaccine and the manufacturers are yet to officially give us confirmation as to when they will be able to deliver. Till we intimate you, please do not visit hospitals although you have enrolled on the CoWIN portal,” the Minister stated. The State has an estimated 3.5 crore people in this class. Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa had on Thursday stated that the fourth part of vaccination can be taken up in levels in the State.
Tamil Nadu had positioned an order of 1.5 crore doses of vaccine, which is but to reach. State Health (*18*) Dr J Radhakrishnan informed reporters: “instead of waiting till tomorrow (and disappoint people), I wish to clarify (now) that we are unsure when and how much out of 1.5 crore doses of vaccine sought by Tamil Nadu, will arrive.” Asked if the vaccination won’t occur tomorrow, the secretary shot again, “we don’t know if we will get (vaccines) tomorrow and how much.”
The Arunachal Pradesh authorities has formally deferred the roll-out of the COVID-19 inoculation drive for these in the 18-44 years age group till additional orders citing “technical” points.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration stated the brand new date for vaccination drive can be introduced as soon as the provision is established. Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education, Atal Dulloo stated the union territory expects to obtain vaccines by May 20.
Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu stated the vaccination drive for all above 18 years in the state might get delayed as there weren’t sufficient doses of the COVID vaccine. “We are not getting adequate doses of vaccines. That is why we are facing problems. We have staff and required infrastructure for vaccination,” Sidhu told reporters.
A senior official of Telangana health department said though the state government is in touch with vaccine manufacturers, there is no certainty on when the stocks would be available for the mass vaccination. “We are in contact with the producers additionally. We are in search of the vaccine. We require round 4 crore doses,” Telangana Public Health Director G Srinivasa Rao told PTI.
According to a senior official in Andhra Pradesh government, inoculation may not start on May 1 in the state as planned due to delay in procurement of vaccine from manufacturers.
The state government has already written to the manufacturers for vaccine supplies and yet to get confirmation from them, the official added.
An official release from Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s office said as per the availability of stocks, the complete vaccination process for the age group (18 to 44 years) in the country will not be completed until January next year.
Asserting that the state government has made all the necessary arrangements for giving vaccines to those over 18 years free of cost, a statement from the Gujarat government said,”the vaccination course of will begin as soon as the state receives substantial numbers of vaccine doses from pharma corporations.”
Meanwhile, in Mumbai, a civic official said vaccination against COVID-19 in the city will have to be suspended for the next two days if enough fresh stock is not provided.
The West Bengal government has written to the Centre, seeking supply of at least three crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines for state-run and private hospital. “The three crore doses is required to vaccinate 1.5 crore people in West Bengal in the part scheduled to begin from May 1. We will ship extra requisitions in subsequent phases,” an official informed PTI including that the State pays for the vaccines.
However, the Union Health Ministry stated multiple crore COVID-19 vaccine doses are nonetheless obtainable with the states and UTs which can obtain an extra practically 20 lakh doses throughout the subsequent 3 days. The Government of India has to date offered practically 16.33 crore vaccine doses (16,33,85,030) to states and UTs freed from price. Of this, the entire consumption together with wastage is 15,33,56,503 doses, the ministry stated.
More than 2.45 crore beneficiaries have registered themselves on the Co-WIN digital platform forward of the Phase-3 of the COVID-19 vaccination for these above 18 years that’s set to begin from May 1, in accordance with the Union Health Ministry.