Health Minister Mandaviya condemns reports of COVID vaccine shortage

Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday responded to reports of shortage of doses of vaccines against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in some states, explaining in a series of tweets, the situation based on an “actual analysis of the facts.”

“To ensure vaccination in government and private hospitals, the Centre provided 114.6 million vaccine doses to state governments in June. For July, the availability of doses has been increased to 135 million,” a rough translation of Mandaviya’s tweet, posted in Hindi, read. In a subsequent tweet, he said that the Union government, on June 19 itself, informed the states how many vaccine doses will be made available to each of them.

“After this, on June 27 and July 13, states were informed in advance about the number of doses available, in batches, each day for the first and second fortnights of July. Therefore, states are well aware how many vaccine doses they will get and when. The central government did this so that state governments can carry out vaccination at district-level without any inconvenience to the people,” the minister posted further.

Indirectly blaming states for “mismanagement” of vaccination drive, if there is one, Mandaviya remarked that it is “very clear” what is the problem and who is responsible for it, despite being informed in advance by the government.

“Politicians making misleading comments in the media need to introspect if they have distanced themselves so much from administrative process and information related to it that they are not aware of information being provided in advance with regards to the supply of vaccine,” Mandaviya concluded.

With the devastating second wave of the coronavirus pandemic declining, experts have expressed concerns over a possible third wave, and called for ramping up of the vaccination drive. However, in recent days, several states, including Maharashtra and Delhi, have complained about a shortage of vaccine doses. Hindustan Times