The Maharashtra government on Wednesday complained of shortage of coronavirus vaccine in several parts of the state, including Mumbai, and said that the doses are available only for the next couple of days.
The inoculation drive has even been halted in Panvel citing “unavailability of vaccine”. However, the Centre termed the complaints as “a deplorable attempt to divert attention from the failures of the state government and spread panic among people”.
“I have just been informed that the Centre increased Covid-19 vaccine doses from seven lakh to 17 lakh. Even this is less because we need 40 lakh vaccine doses a week and 17 lakh doses are not enough,” Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope said while in interacting with reporters.
“We will raise these four issues before PM in today’s meeting over Covid-19: Remdesivir supply and price control, supply of oxygen from nearby states, vaccine doses and ventilator operational support,” he added. The meeting is scheduled to take place at 6.30pm today.
Tope said he and senior NCP leader Sharad Pawar have spoken to Union Health Minister Dr. Hardh Vardhan over the issue of shortage of vaccine in Maharashtra. He said that the Centre has assured Maharashtra the complaint will be looked into and corrective measures will be taken wherever required.
“I talked to Dr Harshavardhan immediately after this, even Sharad Pawar talked to him. I raised issue of discrimination with us. We have most number active patients, positivity rate and death with 12 crore population. Why we are given so few vaccines?” Tope said.
Tope further said that the state government was being accused of laxity which was totally unfair. While Maharashtra has been conducting 70 per cent RT-PCR tests and 30 per cent Antigen tests, it was the opposite in UP, he said, adding that the number of testing labs in the state had also been increased.
Attacking the government over providing vaccines to other states than Maharashtra, Tope said that at least 40 lakh vaccine doses were required in the financial capital every week. “The Centre is helping us but it is not helping us in the way it should. Gujarat is half of the population of Maharashtra, however, it has got 1 crore vaccines till now, and we have got only 1.04 lakhs vaccine dosages,” he alleged.