New Delhi: As high as 23 per cent of the total vaccines distributed in India have gone to waste till April 11 and five states accounted for the highest wastage, a report stating the response to an RTI query said on Monday. The states included Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Punjab, Manipur and Telangana. Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of wasted vaccine doses.
The RTI query, according to an NDTV report, revealed that out of the 10.34 crore vaccine doses supplied to states, a total of 44.78 lakh shots were wasted till April 11. This comes at a time when several states have reported a shortage of vaccines and asked the Centre to increase the supply.
Meanwhile, eight other states and Union Territories including Kerala, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Goa, Daman and Diu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep reported zero wastage of the coronavirus vaccine, the report stated.
As the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic grips India, states/UTs including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, West Bengal, Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, have been reporting an unprecedented surge in new COVID cases.
The government has already increased the supply of oxygen cylinders and Remdesivir in hospitals, adding ventilator stocks and enhanced supply of vaccine doses to these states, following a meeting on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Centre on Monday expedited the vaccination drive and announced that all Indians above 18 years of age will be eligible for the coronavirus vaccine starting May 1. Unlike the previous phases, the government has decided to make pricing, procurement, eligibility and administration of the doses flexible in Phase 3 for states, private hospitals and industrial establishments.
India recorded its highest-ever single-day spike of COVID-19 deaths with over 1,700 fatalities in the last 24 hours. As many as 2,59,170 new COVID-19 cases were logged till Tuesday morning, taking the cumulative caseload to 1,53,21,089. At the same time, a total of 12,71,29,113 people have been vaccinated in the country so far.