Will have enough doses to hit target: Union minister

PUNE: Union minister of state (MoS) for health and family welfare Bharati Pawar said on Saturday that vaccine production has improved and the country will soon have enough doses to vaccinate its entire target adult population by 2021-end.
“Adequate quantities of doses are expected for all states,” she told TOI.
Pawar said states have been provided a 15-day projection of how many doses they are set to get. This ‘advance visibility’ of stock also comes with advice on how to prepare and publicise district-wise vaccine programmes.
She said, “Under the revised guidelines for implementation of the national Covid vaccination programme from June 21, 75% of the doses are procured from manufacturers and provided free of cost to states based on the following criteria: size of target population, progress of vaccination and wastage.”
Maharashtra’s health minister Rajesh Tope said on Saturday that he will be meeting Pawar to discuss increased vaccine allocation for the state, which he said has the capacity to inoculate nearly 10 to 15 lakh people a day.
For August, the Centre has allocated the state 1.2 crore vaccine doses. But state officials have said that more would be needed.
“If distribution is based on vaccination progress, the state was first in the country to fully vaccinate one crore people,” Tope told TOI on Saturday.
He said he plans to reach out to the Centre next week to sort out the supply issues for the state.
Pawar said, overall, pace of vaccine coverage has improved significantly across the country, from an average daily count of 2.35 lakh doses (administered in January) to 43.41 lakh doses in July.