'No shortage of COVID vaccines in Odisha', assures Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan assured on Saturday said that there was no shortage of vaccines in Odisha, days after the state's health secretary blamed an irregular supply of doses for the state's poor immunisation numbers. Also, the central government announced that sufficient quantities of the COVID-19 vaccine will be given to Odisha based on the state's vaccination rate.

Dharmendra Pradhan assures, 'no shortage of COVID-19 vaccines in Odisha'

Pradhan in his official statement said, "I spoke to my senior cabinet colleague Dr Harsh Vardhan regarding panic being created by the Odisha government regarding availability of COVID-19 vaccines in Odisha. He assured me that there is no dearth of availability of doses of the vaccines."

On Friday, the Odisha government requested that the Central government supply COVID-19 vaccines to the state at least 15 days ahead of schedule so that the inoculation campaign could run uninterrupted. State health secretary PK Mohapatra wrote to the Union Health Ministry, claiming that other states were getting up to 3 lakh vaccinations daily and urging the Centre not to discriminate. 

Odisha alleges Centre for discriminating among states for COVID-19 vaccine supply

Mohapatra in a letter said, "We are unable to plan vaccination sessions for even 15 days in advance due to insufficient vaccine supply to our state, is seen that other states are achieving up to 3 lakhs vaccinations daily due to adequate vaccine supply. It is requested that there should not be any discrimination between states in the supply of vaccines."  

According to the Ministry of Health, in the battle against COVID-19, India has made substantial progress. Today (March 28, 2021), the total number of people vaccinated in the country has reached 6 crore. According to the preliminary study, 6,02,69,782 vaccine doses were administered across 9,85,018 sessions as of 7 am. As many as 21,54,170 vaccination doses have been given in the last 24 hours. 

(with inputs from ANI)

Picture Credit: PTI