No vaccine shortage, 43 mn doses in pipeline: Dr Harsh Vardhan

NEW DELHI: After states complained of COVID-19 vaccine shortage, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, on Thursday, April 8, assured that the country has more than 43 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in the process. Amid the rising COVID-19 cases, several states including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand, have claimed vaccine shortage.

According to a report by ANI, Rajesh Tope, Minister of Health, Government of Maharashtra, said that the state is given just 7.5 lakh vaccines whereas other states such as Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, etc. are given far more doses. Banna Gupta, Minister of Health, Government of Jharkhand, said that the state is left with vaccine stock of just a couple of days. He added that the state government has requested the MoHFW for more doses and they are hopeful that the Centre will provide the vaccines.

India has administered more than 90 million doses so far and the MoHFW said on Thursday that cumulatively, 9,01,98,673 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered through 13,77,304 sessions, as per the provisional report. Almost 30 lakh vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours.