New Delhi: Even after the central government released a fund of Rs. 2,519 crore for India's two vaccine manufacturers to produce nearly 15 crore Covid vaccine doses, renowned health expert and Indian Medical Association (IMA) secretary-general Dr Jayesh M Lele, in an exclusive interaction with ETV Bharat on Tuesday, said that the number of vaccine doses ordered by the government is very minimal given the fact that all people above 18 years of age have been permitted to get the vaccine.
The Union Health Ministry on Monday said that Rs 1,732 crore has been released to Serum Institute of India (SII) to produce 10 crore COVISHIELD doses. The manufacturer has already released 8.7 crore doses for the next three months (May-July).
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Similarly, Rs 787 crore was released to Bharat Biotech for 5 crore doses of COVAXIN for the month of May-July.
The Health Ministry said that the government will place more orders in the next one month for more doses.
"All the state governments have been asked to minimise the wastage of vaccines," Health Ministry officials said.
Official statistics revealed that Lakshadweep has reported maximum wastage of 9.76 percent of Covid 19 vaccines, followed by Tamil Nadu 8.83 percent, Assam 7.70 percent, Manipur 7.44 percent, Haryana 5.72 percent, Dadra and Nagar Haveli 4.99 percent, Punjab 4.98 percent, Bihar 4.95 percent, Nagaland 4.13 percent and Meghalaya has reported wastage of 4.01 percent of Covid19 vaccines.
Dr Lele said that government should have already put an order for more doses following the fact that many state governments have put their vaccination process on hold due to a shortage of vaccines.
"The second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic is creating havoc. The only tool we have in our hands is the vaccine. But vaccination process of going very slow...," said Dr. Lele.
Notably, only 9 states have rolled out the third phase of Covid-19 vaccination to inoculate people above 18 years of age. Many of the state governments have expressed their inability to start the vaccination due to a shortage of vaccines.
The third phase vaccine rollout kicked off on May 1.
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"Only 10 percent of our population has been vaccinated. We need to inoculate the rest 90 percent. Many people are still waiting to get their second dose of vaccine," added Dr. Lele.
According to the government data, as many as 94,48, 289 first doses have been given to health care workers (HCW) whereas 62,97,900 second doses have been given to HCW.
As many as 1,35,05,877 frontline workers (FLW) got the first dose whereas only 72,66,380 FLW got the second dose.
Similarly, 5,30,50,669 first dose has been given to the people between the age group of 45-60 years whereas 41,42,786 second dose has been given to the same age group people.
A total of 5,28,16,283 first dose has been given to the people of the age group of 60 years and above whereas, 1,9,98,442 second dose has been given to the same age group people.
Government statistics, however, claimed that Uttar Pradesh still has availability of 12,78,594 vaccine doses, followed by Bihar 7,57,174, Madhya Pradesh 7,09,026, Haryana 6,22,864, Jharkhand 5,32,072, Telangana 4,57,133, Karnataka 4,48,039, Rajasthan 3,46,237, Delhi 3,34,003 and Chhattisgarh has balance availability of 2,93,383 vaccine doses.
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