Sudden plop in Covid shots generates controversy

States may have been asked to do a huge drive on June 21 for showing how impactful the policy of central government taking over procurement has been, writes ETV Bharat Senior Correspondent Gautam Debroy.

New Delhi: A sudden plop into the number of Covid shots has raised a major controversy with a bureaucrat pointing towards a 'publicity stunt' being made by the Central government on Monday. A former health secretary, however, said that the increase in vaccination is also related to the availability of vaccines.

"It's all related to availability. States may have been asked to do a huge drive on June 21 for showing how impactful the policy of central government taking over procurement has been," the bureaucrat said in an exclusive interview to ETV Bharat. She said that the "one day show" is not sustainable as India is not manufacturing so many vaccines. "...It's not sustainable as we are not manufacturing so many vaccines. Once that goes up, the numbers of vaccination can also go up. However, next two months we may have average 40-50 lakh vaccination a day," she said.

As India implemented a revised guideline for Covid-19 vaccination on Monday, more than 88 lakh vaccines have been administered across the country. With such a huge number of people vaccinated on a single day, the central government termed the development "historic".

As per the newly revised guidelines, 75 percent of the vaccines will be provided by the Centre from the vaccine manufacturers. Vaccine doses will be provided by the Centre to States and UTs and all people above 18 years of age will get vaccination free of costs at the government vaccination centre.

Following such a huge vaccination drive, the health ministry has said that it was possible due to proper coordination between Centre and States. Proper planning with vaccine availability were other reasons behind registering such a huge number. The Centre said that the average daily vaccination in June stood at 35.6 lakh shots a day. "The ability to administer 88 lakh shots a day proved that vaccination in the country can be ramped up," the health ministry said.

However, on day two (Tuesday) India administered 52.8 lakh doses. On Wednesday, till the filing of the report India administered 61,35,058 doses of Covid-19 vaccines. The opposition party mainly the Congress also took the opportunity to attack the BJP led central government.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that vaccines were assembled for a one day event.

"The next day the number of doses decreased drastically. It was a drastic decrease of 40 percent shots...India need to administer 80-90 lakh doses per day to achieve the target of vaccinating all by December," tweeted Priyanka.

Senior health expert and Indian Medical Association (IMA) member Dr Vinay Aggarwal said that is a lack of initiative and mismanagement at the State level.

"In Delhi no clarity is given about vaccination to 18-45 category. Even as COVAXIN was available, it was not allowed to be given to 18+...Even vaccination centres are witnessing a lot of chaos, " said Dr Aggrawal.

It may be mentioned here that to date, more than 29,68 crore vaccine doses have been provided to States and UTs by the Centre.