New Delhi: Against the backdrop of a claim made by the Union Health Ministry on the availability of vaccines with state governments and Union Territories, over 9,81,04,593 people are yet to get their second dose of Covid-19 vaccine.
Government statistics show that as many as 13,75,94,982 people received their first dose whereas 3,94,90,389 people got the second dose.
“The statistics only show the slow progress of vaccination. It’s an irony that almost 5 months have passed but a huge chunk of the Indian population is yet to receive their second dose of vaccine,” said Dr JA Jayalal, president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said in an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat on Thursday.
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A total of 17,70,85,371 people got their Covid-19 vaccination.
As many as 95,98,626 Health Care Workers (HCWs) have taken the first dose and 65,68,343 HCWs have taken the second dose. Similarly, 1,42,26,185 Frontline Workers (FLWs) received their first dose and 80,25,849 FLWs received their second dose.
A total of 34,66,895 people in the age group of 18-44 years received their first dose. Whereas 5,62,14,942 for over 45 to 60 years got their first dose and 81,31,218 for over 45 to 60 years got their second dose.
As many as 5,40,88,334 people above 60 years of age got their first dose and 1,67,64,979 people above 60 years got their second dose.
It was on January 16 when India started the mega Covid-19 vaccination drive with two vaccines Covaxin and Covishield.
“Although more than 172 million people got vaccinated, a huge chunk of nearly 200 million people are waiting for their turn to get vaccinated after their registration at the Co-WIN portal,” said Dr Jayalal.
The reason for such discrepancy, according to the IMA president, is the shortage of vaccine availability with the states and union territories.
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“From May 1, the government has allowed the vaccination of all people above 18 years of age. But where is the vaccine? And interestingly, people above 18 years of age can be vaccinated only at private institutions. There is no vaccination of this category of people at the government centres,” said Dr Jayalal.
He asserted that the government should make the vaccination process free of costs.
Interestingly, during a review meeting with the state government, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday said that every month 50 percent of the vaccine doses of every manufacturer would be available for direct procurement by the state government and private hospitals while the government of India would continue to procure its share of 50 percent of the vaccines and would continue to make it available to the state governments free of cost.
Referring to the wastage of vaccines, Dr Jayalal said that the percentage may come down, but wastage is still happening in several states across India.
“Government might have opened the vaccination for people above 18 years of age but that is happening only in private facilities with a certain price. The wastage will continue unless there is a walk-in facility available,” said Dr Jayalal.
According to the latest data, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Manipur and Haryana are among the top few states witnessing the highest wastage of vaccination with 9.76, 8.83, 7.44 and 7.70 percent respectively.
Giving instructions to the states and union territories, the Union Health Ministry has urged them to minimise vaccine wastage. While the overall levels have considerably reduced, the Union Health Secretary pointed out that there were many states which still need to substantially reduce the wastage.
It was suggested to the states and union territories to retrain and re-orient vaccinators to ensure judicious usage of the vaccines. All wastage more than the national average hereafter is to be adjusted from the subsequent allocations to that states and union territories.
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“Certain states can report a negative wastage because the well-trained health workers can extract maximum doses per vial than what is otherwise generally earmarked,” the Health Ministry pointed out.
