Maharashtra, Delhi, UP getting lower vaccine doses than needed: SBI report

As the country grapples with the second wave of Covid, key states such as Maharashtra, New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh (UP), and Chhattisgarh are getting lower vaccine doses than they require, suggests a latest report by State Bank of India’s (SBI’S) economic research wing.

To estimate the ideal share of each state in total vaccines, SBI Research did a disaggregated analysis using parameters such as population over 18 years, deaths, Covid cases and juxtaposed it with the vaccine distribution.

Maharashtra, the report said, should have a share of 17.8 per cent of total vaccine allocation, against the 10.1 per cent currently.

“Even if we include the vaccine doses in the pipeline, the share is going to rise marginally to 10.2 per cent which will still be below the required doses,” according to Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economic adviser.

Delhi’s ideal share is 5 per cent against its allocation of 2.3 per cent, while UP needs 12.5 per cent (8.6 per cent allocation) and Chhattisgarh 4.6 per cent (3.6 per cent).

On the other hand, Rajasthan, Kerala, West Bengal and Gujarat have received more doses than needed. Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Punjab, Bihar and Northeastern states have ‘quite high’ vaccination wastage, the report said. “Thus such states with a lower share have to procure a large number of vaccines in future from the manufacturers to fill the gap. However, we also need to understand that there will always be a gap in ex-ante and ex-post vaccine distribution given the spread of Covid has been almost difficult to predict,” Ghosh said.