The Odisha government on Thursday raised the issue of vaccine shortage again saying there is nil stock of Covishield.
Stating that Odisha was facing a crisis due to extremely low and intermittent supply of COVID-19 vaccines, Health and Family Welfare Minister Naba Kisore Das wrote to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan that the State had received 50,79,650 doses till Wednesday.
He said the balance stock of Covishield would last for only one day. “We are prepared to undertake three lakh vaccinations daily. However, Odisha is being allocated only about 2-3 lakh doses at a time.”
Stating that it took about three days to transfer vaccine from the stores to cold chain points in the far off districts, he said the intermittent supply was leading to stock out situation in cold chain points and sessions cannot be conducted as planned.
Mr. Das urged Mr. Vardhan to urgently supply at least 10 days stock of Covishield (25 lakh doses) in a single lot as an emergency measure to enable the State plan sessions in advance and undertake the vaccination programme effectively.