Vaccines short, jabs for 18-44 may be delayed in Telangana

HYDERABAD: On a day registration for Covid-19 vaccination for people aged between 18 and 45 opened, an aggressive rollout from May 1 is unlikely in Telangana due to confusion over availability of vaccine stocks.
The state government has given instructions to local authorities for the roll-out of the vaccination programme on May 1, but has not issued clear guidelines for the programme so far. Sources said that the government is currently more focused on completing the second dose for people above the age of 45.

“We are prepared to administer one million doses daily. But there are many shortcomings insofar as vaccine stocks are concerned. Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will review the situation in a day or two on the issue,” according to director of public health, Dr G Srinivasa Rao.
Telangana has so far received 45.96 lakh doses of vaccine, of which 44.23 lakh have been utilised (including 0.53 per cent wastage). The state currently has a balance of 1.73 lakh doses. Another three lakh vaccine doses are expected to reach the state in next two days. “These are meant for people above 45 years. We are in touch with the vaccine companies as well,” the public health director said.
Faced with shortage of vaccine doses, Telangana has largely limited the supply of vaccines to private hospitals, which are meant to be administered for people aged above 45 years. “More number of vaccine doses may be available only in June unless foreign vaccines are allowed into the country immediately,” according to top sources in the administration.
Of the total doses, only 5 per cent of them are Covaxin jabs. The total vaccine production of Covishield and Covaxin is around seven crore doses per month. State government sources said that the current daily production is 23 lakh, which is not sufficient to serve even those in the age group of above 45. “In view of this (production capacity limitations), administering the second dose is top priority for the government,” a senior official said.
It may be recalled that the state government had stopped the vaccination drive on March 17 across the state when many health centres reported that they did not have vaccine doses.