Rajasthan minister alleges shortage of COVID-19 vaccine doses; Centre refutes claims

Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma’s remarks that the state is left with only two days of coronavirus vaccine sparked a controversy on Tuesday, with the Centre denying the claim. “We have the (COVID) vaccine for two days, if we do not get more vaccines soon, the vaccination drive will stop mid-way. Today, 85,000 doses have been sent to Udaipur and 6.78 lakh more is expected,” Sharma said.

The minister asserted that the Centre should provide buffer stock to the state. The Ministry of Health, however, clarified that there is no shortage of COVID-19 vaccines in Rajasthan. "There have been some news reports suggesting impending shortage of COVID-19 vaccine doses in Rajasthan. The factual position is that there is no shortage of COVID-19 vaccine with the state at present. Rajasthan has been supplied 37.61 lakh doses and has consumed only 24.28 lakh doses till yesterday night," it said in an official release on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot stood by Sharma’s remarks and said the state was facing shortage of vaccine doses. He also said that administering of the first dose of the vaccine was discontinued at PHC/CHC level in some districts due to shortage of vaccines.

"The data released by the Ministry of Health in relation to Rajasthan is completely incorrect. I will appeal to the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan to instruct his officials to provide the vaccines soon and not give false information about Rajasthan,” he tweeted in Hindi.

“The data provided by health ministry is completely incorrect. As of March 8, Rajasthan received 31,45,340 COVID-19 vaccines. Of these, 2,15,180 vaccines have been made available to the Army. “As per rules, 29,30,160 vaccines were made available for others. As of March 8, 23,26,975 vaccines have been administered in the state. A total of 1,62,888 vaccines got spoiled, which is less than the 10 per cent limit allowed by the central government. Thus, on March 8, only 4,40,297 vaccines were available in the state,” Gehlot said in a series of tweets. He said more than two lakh people are daily vaccinated against the disease in the state.

“In such a situation, on March 8, stock of only two-day vaccine was available so the state government demanded additional vaccines from the Centre. After which the state received 85,000 vaccines on March 9,” he noted. The chief minister noted that in the third phase of the nationwide vaccination, about 22 per cent vaccination of the country is being done in Rajasthan itself. “But due to such misinformation by the Centre, the spirit of the citizens of the state and corona warriors will be hampered,” he added.