PUNE: Officials from the health ministry on Thursday said the government has dispatched 8.29 crore doses of Covishield and Covaxin to the states. Another 12 crore doses are set to be delivered by both companies within the next two months, they added.
Ministry officials also said both Serum Institute (producing Covishield) and Bharat Biotech (producing Covaxin) will be asked to scale up vaccine production to match demand as and when the Covid vaccination programme expands to cover more citizens.
The government has already added everyone over 45 years of age to the vaccination plan and officials maintained that the country will have enough doses for all.
Centre has sent 8.29cr doses, 12cr more coming
With some states raising concerns of supply shortages, authorities said state governments should first focus on covering districts or regions that are seeing a high number of cases or where antibody prevalence has been low.
A source from the health ministry said, “States should know their susceptible groups before carrying out the vaccination drive. They should focus on these areas and populations first, instead of complaining about vaccine shortages. They can use sero survey data to determine which regions have the most susceptible population. The idea is to vaccinate the most susceptible first and then move on to others. Local authorities have to use their discretion.”
Ministry officials said doses are being ordered and dispatched regularly as per requirements placed by the states. But there have been claims of shortages. Maharashtra, for instance, has demanded 2.2 crore vaccine doses at a supply rate of 20 lakh doses a week. On Wednesday, officials said the state's reserves may last only about a week more. And there are at least nine districts recording worryingly high caseloads.
But central government sources said the primary aim of the vaccination programme was to disrupt the Covid transmission chain. It is then necessary for states to "carpet bomb" priority districts with the vaccines instead of using the shots as "water sprinklers", officials said.
Meanwhile, experts said more sites should be added.
Dr Lalit Kant, former head of epidemiology and communicable Diseases, ICMR, said, “It's believed there are 30-35 crore people in the 45+ age group. At the current rate, it would take us several years to give them all two doses. We need 50,000 daily sessions and if one covers 100 persons, 50 lakh people can be vaccinated every day. In two days then, we should be able to administer one crore doses. Private sector role has to increase in a big way."