Centre deciding jab quota leads to lower allocation, say states
But vax makers say centrally controlled allocation efficient
Even as states started procuring Covid vaccines directly from producers for inoculating the 18-44 years age bracket under a ‘liberalised’ system, the Centre is allocating doses for the same group, claimed state governments.
As a result, some states with higher populations say they are at a disadvantage at a time when vaccine supply is constrained across states.
Sources among vaccine manufacturers, however, say that the system works more efficiently when controlled centrally.
For instance, according to Uttar Pradesh's state immunisation officer Ajay Ghai, it has received fewer vaccines compared to states with lower population than UP.
“The Centre allocates the quota for both above 45 years and 18-44 categories. It is based on the allocation from the Centre that vaccine makers disburse doses to each state. However, many states are still better off than us though we have a large population and need more doses for the drive,” Ghai told Business Standard.
The immunisation officer of an eastern state, too, confirmed that the health ministry decides on how many doses the state will get.
“While we place orders directly with vaccine makers, how many doses we will get depends on the central allocation. This is decided mostly on a month-wise manner or whenever batches are released from the Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL), Kasauli,” the officer said.
Vaccine makers, too, confirm the arrangement.
“We have to inform the health ministry about the doses we will produce and also about the orders we are getting from both state governments and the private sector. The Centre has said that 50 per cent of the production will be procured by it. The remaining would be divided between states and private hospitals. So, it takes these details and allocates according to needs,” a senior official at a vaccine manufacturing firm said.
The official further said when the batches are released from CDL, Kasauli, the Centre not only decides what each state will get, but also which hospital in which geographic zone (north, south, east, west) will get how many doses from that batch.
“This, in fact, makes the system efficient as everyone demands vaccines at the same time,” the official added.
India is reportedly producing at least 2.7 million doses daily while vaccination in the first three weeks of May so far has been at an average of 1.62 million doses with states complaining of shortages.
States like Karnataka and Delhi have, in fact, halted vaccination for the 18-44 yrs age bracket, citing shortage.
States like UP and Gujarat are managing the Covid vaccination drive by regulating the number of operational centres. For instance, according to Ghai, UP began vaccinating the 18-44 years age group in only seven districts where infection rates were the highest and then gradually ramped it up to 23 districts. So far, UP has been able to cover 13.4 million of the total 43.2 million population in the above 45 years group and 1.1-1.2 million of the total 92.8 million target population in the 18-44 years category.
According to Ghai, the state has so far received 3.3 million doses, bulk of which were received just a couple of days ago, as against an order of 5 million doses each of Covaxin and Covishield, leaving the state with two weeks of stock.
According to a top health department official in Gujarat, the vaccine allocation for even the 18-44 age group seems to be based on states’ respective inventory threshold on the joint platform EVIN.
According to the official, producers are also seeing to it that there is no dumping of vaccine in a particular state and are, therefore keeping track of immunisation drives in each state through the portal.
As a result, at times certain states receive more doses than others based on how quickly their stock gets over.
According to Gujarat’s state immunisation officer Nayan Jani, the state has placed an order for 25 million doses for the 18-44 age bracket of which 1.4-1.5 million doses have been received. “We are trying to regulate the vaccine stock through proper management of the vaccination drive,” Jani said.
On the other hand, Rajasthan has received a cumulative dosage of over 15.5 million Covid vaccines from the Centre of which 15.3 million have been disbursed to various districts. Rajasthan has also procured 1.41 million doses from Serum Institute for the 18-44 bracket.