Covid-19 vaccines in short supply, may shut jab sites: Delhi govt

The Covid vaccination drive in Delhi has again run into shortages, Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said on Tuesday, declaring that around 500 jab centres will have to be closed from Wednesday if the city does not receive more stocks.

Delhi currently has a vaccine stock of 168,000 doses to be administered through 1,374 centres, Jain said.

Delhi last inoculated more than 200,000 people on June 29; and between June 30 and July 13, it has vaccinated more than 100,000 people only on six occasions, according to the data from the CoWIN dashboard.

“We have the capability to administer 300,000-400,000 doses a day. But there is a shortage of vaccines. We received a small stock of 150,000 Covishield doses on Monday night. We have around 168,000 doses which will not last beyond Tuesday or the first half of Wednesday. We have to shut down vaccination centres because of lack of vaccines,” Jain said.

Taking a dig at the Haryana government, Jain said, “We can’t function like Haryana and slow down the vaccination drive to hoard on stocks. We are vaccinating the maximum number of people as and when we are receiving the vaccines.”

On May 31, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had accused the Delhi government of exhausting its share of vaccines soon.

The vaccination drive picked up pace after a policy change from June 21, when the Centre took over the procurement and free distribution of vaccines to all adults. Union health ministry officials, however, said states should plan their drives according to the supply of vaccines.

“We are running a marathon, not a sprint race; and need to understand its challenges... From about 250,000 doses daily average in January to the current 4 million doses, we have made significant progress. States are being informed about supplies well in advance and can plan vaccination coverage accordingly. In some time, there will be more doses available,” said Lav Aggarwal, joint secretary, Union health ministry, during a press briefing on Friday on vaccine shortage.

Though more than 128,000 doses were administered till Tuesday evening, according to the CoWIN dashboard, Delhi districts said that they had to close some of the centres due to rationing of doses.

“There are intermittent shortages of vaccines as the supply is not regular. Districts are allocated doses only for two or three days at a time now, which is much lower than the demand. There is a sort of rationing; today we got some doses, tomorrow some other district will get it. This is the reason for the drop in vaccinations on some days,” said an official from South West district. “Today, our district received a fresh stock of doses so around 15,000 jabs were administered. Yesterday, we had managed only 4,000,” the official added.

Another senior district official said the problem is likely to continue this month. “Today, we had to shut some of the vaccination centres. There have been days when we could run only a couple of centres because of the shortage of doses. And, this is likely to continue for the month because Delhi’s allocation for the month is low. Hopefully, with production being ramped up, more doses will be available from the next month,” the official said.

No relaxation on Covaxin

Meanwhile, a month after the Delhi government restricted use of its Covaxin stock only for those lining up for second doses, the authorities are yet to open Covaxin for first jabs. Officials said that it was unlikely to happen this month due to irregular supply.

“There were talks of resuming Covaxin first dose, however, it is not being considered at the moment because there are still people who got the first jab in May and now need the second dose. In addition, the supply is not very stable. The government might open it up next month after those eligible for second dose have received it,” said another district official.

Currently, only 20% of the Covaxin doses are being used as first dose, mainly for those older than 45. The proportion of Covaxin doses administered in Delhi fell from 30% at the beginning of June to 24% as on Tuesday evening, according to CoWIN.