No shortage of Covid vaccine in Rajasthan, says union health ministry

Central government is monitoring availability of vaccine supply in all states, it says.

The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday said the country had enough vaccines for Covid-19, reacting after reports that Rajasthan’s stock would run out soon.

The ministry said that the central government is monitoring availability of vaccine supply in all states, and providing the doses as per their requirement and consumption pattern. 

“We have vaccines for three days. If the vaccines don't reach us...We asked for 60 lakh vaccines needed in March alone to continue the drive as is. If we don't get vaccines, the drive could stop mid-way... If we don't have the stock, how will the drive run,” Raghu Sharma, Rajasthan’s health minister was quoted as saying in a report by television news channel NDTV.

The ministry said that Rajasthan was supplied 37.61 lakh doses and had consumed only 24.28 lakh doses till Monday night.

More than 2 million vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours, according to the health ministry data. Total vaccination coverage in the country has crossed 23 million on the 52nd day of vaccination. 

Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka continue to report a surge in the COVID daily new cases. They cumulatively accounted for 84.04 per cent of the new cases reported in the past 24 hours, health ministry said.

More than 15,000 new cases were registered in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra reported the highest daily new cases at 8,744. It is followed by Kerala with 1,412 while Punjab reported 1,229 new cases. Four states including Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura did not report any new Covid19 cases.