Centre increases punjab’s vaccine allocation by 25%

CHANDIGARH: The Centre on Wednesday increased vaccine allocation to Punjab by 25% after Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh met Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and requested more vaccine doses in light of the upcoming festival season and the fact that about 26 lakh people are overdue in the state for the second dose. 

Punjab’s per capita vaccination stood at 27.1, while that of Haryana is 35.2, Delhi’s 39.4, Jammu and Kashmir 43.7, Himachal Pradesh 62.0 and Rajasthan 35.1. Till August 7,  Punjab has received only 1,00,73,821 doses of Covid vaccines as against Haryana’s 1,27,94,804, Delhi’s 1,06,79,728, J&K’s 66,90,063, Himachal Pradesh’s 55,51,177 and Rajasthan’s 34,954,868 doses.  

Amarinder sought the supply of 55 lakh doses of Covid vaccine on priority for his state. Mandaviya assured Amarinder of all help in this regard and said that while supplies would ease from the next month, he would fulfill the state’s requirement by October 31 and ordered the department to immediately increase Punjab’s allocation to meet its urgent requirement.

Amarinder said with sufficient supplies, the state government could arrange to vaccinate 5 to 7 lakh people every day. He pointed out that the allocation of vaccines for Punjab for the month of August currently stood at 20,47,060 doses of Covishield, while around 26 lakh doses of this were required just for those whose second dose was overdue.  

Citing data, Amarinder said Punjab has relatively very less allocation of vaccines (and hence very low per capita vaccination) as compared to the other states, and its vaccine allocation needs to be increased to cover more population and catch up with other states. 

He further requested that Punjab be allowed access to the COWIN portal for analytical purposes and also urged Mandaviya to considerably favourably Punjab’s request for setting up a Bulk Drug Park at Bathinda.  The state government had applied in October 2020 to set up the park over a 1,320-acre land at Bathinda, with the Council of Ministers approving attractive incentives for the same, he pointed out.