The major States are seen punching below their weight when it comes to Covid vaccination, despite being equipped with the necessary infrastructure, trained vaccinators and cold-chain networks.

Be it Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Kerala, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan or Uttar Pradesh, vaccine supply shortage continues to be the key spoiler, leading to subpar coverage – this is even as the Centre maintains that over 2.2 crore doses remain unutilised with the States and UTs as on August 7.

Seven months into the vaccination drive and the expanded initiative to include all above 18 years, only 8 per cent of India’s population is fully vaccinated. As on August 6, 50 crore doses have been administered (including 11 crore as second dose). In the past few days, several States reported daily average vaccination between 2 lakh and 4 lakh (with exceptions on a day or two), with the potential to do more.

Tamil Nadu, for instance, has been vaccinating between 2.5 lakh and 3.5 lakh, with the capacity to more than double that. Asked why, J Radhakrishnan, Health Secretary, said: “Assured availability is the reason. There is a lack of uniform stock availability.” Tamil Nadu has a capacity to vaccinate 7 lakh a day.

 

Call to release vaccines

Ever since the new DMK government took charge in May, it has repeatedly urged the Centre to release more vaccines to the State.

“We are exhausting stocks as and when we receive the supply. Supply is the constraint. It is logical that we can plan for expanded camps only if we have sufficient stocks in hand,” says the Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, TS Selvavinayagam. On seeing the crowd waiting at vaccination centres, hesitancy is not an issue any more, he added.

Similarly, Gujarat, which is capable of administering about 15 lakh doses every day, is vaccinating average 3.5 lakh. Gujarat runs Covid vaccination five days a week. Authorities cite short supply after people started queuing-up for jabs soon after the second wave.

Madhya Pradesh administers average 4.3 lakh doses against its capability to vaccinate over 10 lakh a day. Almost every alternate day is a lean day, with vaccinations dropping to about 40,000. Rajasthan has maintained above 3 lakh doses on average, against its capacity to vaccinate over 15 lakh doses. “Awareness isn’t an issue any more, supply is,” said a State official. With a rising graph of Covid-19 cases, Kerala, too, looks to ramp up vaccination, but complains of short supply.

India’s most populous State, Uttar Pradesh, has been topping the charts with average over 5.5 lakh daily vaccinations. Here, too, supply remain a challenge, said an official. Initially, it was tough to bring people to the vaccination centers, but now the heightened emphasis on vaccinations has encouraged more people to get inoculated, he said.

Fresh outbreak

In the North-East, while Tripura has fully vaccinated 30 per cent of its eligible population, neighbouring Assam, Meghalaya and Manipur that are reporting fresh Covid outbreak, have barely touched 10 per cent.

In Delhi, vaccination has slowed down because of vaccine supplies. Delhi has, till date, administered a total of 1.03 crore vaccines in the city with a population of about 2 crore people. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal recently noted that Delhi has the capacity to administer 3 lakh doses a day, but is unable to do so due to low stocks.

At present, the city administers about 50,000 to 70,000 doses a day. Late July, the daily count was up at near 1 lakh. But this was lower than the June-end performance of an average 1.5 to 2 lakh doses every day.

Maharashtra is the only State to have covered one crore people with two doses. State Health Minister Rajesh Tope said they were ready to vaccinate maximum people if the Centre provides more vaccines.

But August, Central authorities say, will be a better month, with increased supply from vaccine companies.

(With inputs from KR Srivats and Radheshyam Jadhav)

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