Centre clarifies on Covid vaccine shortage in Maharashtra
Premium- Maharashtra has over 24 lakh unutilized doses of Covaxin available with it and an additional 6.35 lakh doses have been received today, the Centre said
Day after Maharashtra health minister said his state was facing shortage of vaccine, the Union Health Ministry on Friday issued a clarification saying there is no vaccine shortage in the western state. It further said Maharashtra has over 24 lakh unutilized doses of Covaxin available with it and an additional 6.35 lakh doses have been received today.
In a statement, the ministry said there have been some media reports alleging vaccine shortage in Maharashtra stating that due to lack of vaccines the state government is unable to increase the pace of vaccination in the state.
"Such reports are ill-informed and incorrect…It is clarified that, as per the reports available today, Maharashtra has over 24 lakh unutilized doses of Covaxin available with it and an additional 6.35 lakh doses have been received on Friday," Ministry said.
As per their weekly consumption data available on Co-WIN, the average consumption by Maharashtra for Covaxin to cover the eligible beneficiaries for 15-17 years and for precaution dose is almost 2.94 lakh doses per day, the statement said.
Therefore, it added, the state has adequate vaccine doses for about 10 days to cover the eligible beneficiaries with Covaxin.
For Covishield, the state has 1.24 crore unutilized and balance doses available as of date. With an average consumption of 3.57 lakhs per day, this will sustain for more than 30 days for the beneficiaries to be vaccinated using the vaccine.
Hence, the media reports are not factually correct and do not reflect the correct picture of the available stock of balance and unutilized COVID vaccine doses with Maharashtra, the statement said.
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