Delhi's Covaxin stock over for 45+ age group, Covishield left for 12 days

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The Delhi government has exhausted its Covaxin stock for people over 45 years while that of Covishield will last only 12 days, AAP MLA Atishi said on Wednesday.

So, this means that those awaiting their second dose of Covaxin in Delhi are in a situation wherein they may be wondering if their first dose will go to waste, she said.

Covaxin doses are administered at Centre-run hospitals like the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

For the 45 and above group, about 2.92 lakh doses of Covishield are in stock and this can be used for just 12 days of vaccination. The Covaxin stock, which was available at a diminished scale till recently, is already exhausted, Atishi said.

The few Covaxin doses that were available in the past few days were used for administering the second dose, she said.

In a vaccination bulletin issued online, Atishi said, "Yesterday (Tuesday), only 43,824 doses were administered in total while the count was over 1.25 lakh or 1.4 lakh per day till recent time."

"For the 18-44 age group, we were vaccinating over 80,000 people per day till a few days ago but now it has halted as we don't have doses for this category of beneficiaries," the legislator of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said.

On May 25, 43,824 beneficiaries were vaccinated. Of these, over 33,000 beneficiaries received the first dose and about 10,000 received the second dose, she added.

The continued decline in vaccination numbers has been due to the shortage of vaccines, Atishi said.

Now, vaccination for the 18-44 age group is only being carried out in private hospitals with each dose priced between Rs 800 and Rs 1,350, an amount many youths in Delhi can't afford to pay, she said.

"We would like to again appeal to the central government to immediately approve and import other vaccines including Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson so that the youth can get the vaccine as soon as possible as a third wave is expected," the AAP leader said.

A lot of vaccines are available in the international market that have not been approved by the Centre yet but have been approved by the WHO. Today, all across the world, countries are administering vaccines like Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson, she said.

The Centre must approve these vaccines at the earliest, import them on a large scale, and allow an increase of India's vaccine manufacturing capacity, Atishi said.

"They must supply these (vaccines) to all the states as soon as possible, including Delhi, as it is the only way to protect ourselves from the third wave," she said.