India's phase 3 COVID-19 vaccination drive for all adults above the age of 18 years, which begins on Saturday, May 1 is expected to hit some roadblocks as many states have articulated their inability to inoculate people in the wake of vaccine shortage.
Several state governments, such as Goa, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka, have stated that they won't be able to begin the vaccination programme from May 1 as they do not have any vaccine doses.
The Union Health Ministry had on Thursday, April 29, two days ahead of the inoculation drive, said over 1 crore vaccine doses are still available with states, and they will get 20 lakh more over the next few days.
The ministry further stated that the Centre has so far supplied around 16.16 crore vaccine doses to states and UTs free of charge. Of this, the overall consumption, comprising wastages, is 15,10,77,933 doses.
Furthermore, more than 2.45 crore beneficiaries have registered themselves till Friday morning on the government's CoWIN platform for the phase 3 vaccination programme slated to begin on Saturday. Registration for newly eligible populace groups began on Wednesday, April 28.
Meanwhile, the Serum Institute of India's (SII) current manufacturing capacity is 6-7 crore doses per month whereas Bharat Biotech had produced approx. 2 crore doses in April as against 1.5 crore doses in March.