JAIPUR: The
health department has achieved the milestone of crossing 20 lakh Covid inoculations since January 16, and half of them were achieved in the last six days.
After some sites in Bundi, Karauli and Nagaur districts announced shortage of doses, the health department brought the situation under control by supplying excessive
doses from
Udaipur to continue the process.
On Saturday, 2,17,336 first doses and 22,989 second doses were given to beneficiaries, taking total vaccinations to 21,31,443 since the launch of the drive from January 16.
“We have crossed 21
lakh vaccinations if we add both the doses. On the third day this week, we did more than 2 lakh vaccinations and in the last six days, more than 10 lakh inoculations were done,” said
Siddharth Mahajan, secretary (health). Health minister
Raghu Sharma said the state has demanded more supplies from the Centre and Niti Aayog, as Rajasthan is a leading state in vaccination and requires a regular supply of doses to keep the drive rolling.
The state has more than 5 lakh doses of vaccine available, but they are scattered at hundreds of sites. The health department is monitoring the availability of vaccines at each site to ensure that the drive should not be affected.
“If we maintain the vaccination pace, the stock will end by Tuesday as Sunday is an off day,” said Mahajan. Besides, some districts have started reporting shortage of vaccines, but the health department is taking measures to deal with the situation by doing inter-district transfer of doses. After the matter of doses was taken up with the Centre, it has informed the state they will supply Covaxin doses on Monday. Besides, more than 6 lakh doses of Covishield are expected to arrive on March 9 and March 10.