Maha, Centre spar over Covid vaccine shortage
Maharashtra govt says it only has three days of vaccine left, Centre says state spreading panic
MUMBAI: Union health minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday hit out at Maharashtra and some other states, alleging that they were trying to cover their “failures” and spreading panic among people by demanding Covid-19 vaccination of all without inoculating enough of eligible beneficiaries.
Vardhan said statements made by public representatives in Maharashtra about the shortage of vaccines were “nothing but an attempt to divert attention from Maharashtra government’s repeated failures to control the spread of pandemic”. Asserting that allegations of vaccine shortage are utterly baseless, Vardhan said Maharashtra’s “testing is not up to the mark and their contact tracing leaves a lot to be desired”.
Maharashtra -- the epicentre of a renewed wave of Covid-19 infections -- has only three days worth of vaccines in stock, the state’s health minister Rajesh Tope said earlier in the day. He said the administration had only 1.4 million doses of the immunisations left and was likely to run out in about three days. He said the administration has asked the central government to arrange for additional shots so that the state’s vaccinations can keep pace.
The state government has been administering around 450,000 doses each day and “many of our vaccination centers are facing shortages and had to be shut due to unavailability of vaccines,” Tope said.
“Healthcare workers at many
centres are forced to send back people saying the vaccine has not arrived yet.”
Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar, too, said the state capital is running out of vaccine doses and demanded that the Centre step up supplies immediately.
Speaking to reporters, Pednekar said Mumbai had only 176,000 doses of Covishield, the mainstay of the vaccination drive, till Tuesday afternoon and this figure could have gone down by now.
Hitting out the Uddhav Thackeray-led state government, the Union health minister in a strong statement said, “It is shocking to see how the state Government is putting Maharashtrians in danger by letting people escape institutional quarantine mandate for the sake of their personal Vasuli.
“Overall, as the state has lurched from one crisis to another, it seems as if the state leadership is happily sleeping at the wheels.”
About Chhattisgarh, Vardhan said regular comments have been made by leaders from the state “that are intended to spread misinformation and panic on vaccination”.
He also said the state’s testing remains heavily dependent on rapid antigen tests which is not a wise strategy. He further said many other states also need to bring their health care systems up to the mark.
“For example, quality of testing needs to improve in Karnataka, Rajasthan and Gujarat. In Punjab, high case fatality rate needs to be improved by early identification of those needing hospitalisation,” he said.
Vardhan said when states ask to open up vaccine supplies to everyone over 18, we must presume that they have done saturation coverage of health care workers, frontline workers and senior citizens. Maharashtra has vaccinated just only 86% of health workers with the first dose, while the equivalent numbers for Delhi and Punjab are 72% and 64%, he said.