oppn parties Despite Health Minister's Denial, Vaccines Are In Short Supply

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Despite Health Minister's Denial, Vaccines Are In Short Supply

By Anukriti Roy
First publised on 2021-07-15 15:12:03

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Anukriti is a student who dabbles in writing when she finds time.

The newly-appointed health minister, Mansukh Mandaviya, has reportedly said that there is no shortage of vaccines and since the states are given an advance programme of the number of vaccines they will be supplied every fortnight, they should plan accordingly and ensure that the public is not inconvenienced or panic is not created.

But the ground situation in West Bengal, for example, does not confirm this. Due to shortage of vaccines, all government centres that provide free vaccination to all citizens have been only giving the second dose since the last week of May. No free first dose is being given at any of these centres. This is mainly due to the short supply of vaccines as also the fact that those who had taken the first dose of Covishield in end-April are due to take their second dose. The state government has accordingly prioritized that and has been forced to  the first dose recipients in the lurch. They either have to wait for supplies to improve or get jabbed at the private centres by paying for the vaccine.

There is huge shortage of vaccines otherwise no state government will stop vaccinating people for the first dose. One does not know what the health minister means by planning for if a limited number of vaccines are supplied to the states, they can only plan accordingly and will have to drastically reduce the number of beneficiaries daily. For three weeks, the wait for the first dose, especially for 18 to 45 year olds, is getting prolonged in West Bengal, despite the state making very efficient use of vaccine doses and consistently reporting negative wastage, due to short supply of vaccines.

The health minister must acknowledge that vaccines are not being supplied in sufficient numbers to achieve the ambitious target set for vaccination till December and work to get supplies in line instead of putting out excuses. The "just in time" vaccine supply logistics management might be good, but if leads to three weeks of no free first dose vaccination in a state, it needs to be revisited. 

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