‘State likely to begin vaccination of 18+ group only after May 15’

Vaccine makers express inability to provide vaccines before May 15, claims health minister

The much awaited inoculation drive covering people aged between 18-44 years amid the ongoing deadly second wave of Covid-19 pandemic was likely to begin in state after May 15 when the vaccines arrive, officials said on Thursday. The upcoming phase of the Covid-19 vaccination drive was scheduled to start on May 1.

State health minister Banna Gupta claimed that the two vaccine manufacturing companies in the country expressed inability to provide vaccines before May 15, as the Centre already placed an advance booking of 12 crore doses with them. “The (vaccine manufacturing) companies said they will have to deliver the Centre’s order by May 15. They said there was no chance of providing vaccines to Jharkhand before May 15, and that they will consider our order in the last week of May,” the health minister said.

The Centre has approved two vaccines, Covishield and Covaxin, produced by Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech, respectively.

However, Gupta claimed that the state was all set to start the drive from May 1.

“We have done all required preparations to administer shots for free to citizens aged between 18-44 years from May 1. As many as 2,229 vaccination centres are also ready. A purchase order of 25 lakh doses for each the vaccines has also been placed. I will request the Centre to make sure that Jharkhand gets vaccines in time so that we can start the drive at the earliest,” he said.

The state has identified 1.57 crore people between the age group of 18 and 44 for the upcoming phase, the health minister said.

The Centre has allocated ₹35,000 crore for vaccination in the Union budget for 2020-21, said Gupta, questioning the central government’s decision of giving states the responsibility of purchasing the vaccines on their own for this phase.

“If we consider the price of a dose, which is fixed at ₹300 for the state governments, with an estimated 118 crore citizens of the country to take the shot under this phase, it will cost around ₹35,400 crore. So, I will like to know from the Centre that when it has already allocated ₹35,000 crore in the Union budget, why are states forced to purchase the vaccines,” he said.

“The Centre gives the slogan of one nation, one Constitution. Then, why three tariffs have been fixed for one vaccine. Despite all this, we are ready to purchase the vaccines from our pocket. But, companies are not ready provide them in time,” Gupta said.

He said they have around 2.5 lakh doses in stock left for vaccinating people above 45 years of age.

The state till April 28 inoculated 26,08,781 beneficiaries, comprising health care workers (HCW), frontline workers (FLW) and citizens above the age of 45 with the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine.

As many as 4,53,926 were also given the second dose till April 28.

Health minister blames Centre for Remdesivir shortage

Health minister Banna Gupta on Thursday blamed the Centre for shortage of Remdesivir injections, an anti-viral drug, and other medicines required in treating Covid-19 in Jharkhand.

“Jharkhand’s average daily requirement of Remdesivir is around 4,000, but we have been allocated merely 20,000 vials of the drug between April 21 and 30. We have merely 2,500 Remdesivir vials left. We have to borrow 2,000 vials from Assam,” he said.

He claimed that the central government provided 1.65 lakh Remdesivir vials to Gujarat, where they were one lakh active cases.

“On the other hand, we have 50,000 active Covid patients,” he said.

When asked about oxygen crisis in the state, the minister denied shortage of oxygen.

“We are an oxygen surplus state, but facing supply chain issue due to shortage of medical cylinders refilling plants. We have 7,500 tonnes of oxygen in stock and Jharkhand is fulfilling the needs of many states. Ninety tonnes of oxygen being sent to Uttar Pradesh, 80 tonnes to Harayana and 12 tonnes to Bihar,” he said.

“We have only 18 refilling plants and around 12,000-13,000 cylinders. We are trying to resolve the issue. A proposal to purchase 17,000 cylinders has already been submitted,” he said.

Over the recent allegation of beds being sold to patients at Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS), the minister said an inquiry was set up over the issue and stringent action will be taken.