Maharashtra Covid Crisis: Health Minister Reports Worrying Vaccine Shortage, Says Stocks Will Last Only 3 Days

<p><strong>Mumbai:</strong> As Maharashtra battles the worrying surge in Coronavirus cases, the state health minister reported that it is now left with only three days of vaccine stocks.</p> <p>There is also a shortage of oxygen and Ramdesivir medicines which are required to deal with the new infections which are rising above half-lakh mark daily.</p> <p>"We have around 14 lakh doses left available&hellip; That's the stock sufficient for only three days. Our weekly requirement is around 40 lakh doses to enable us to vaccinate up to 500,000 people. In the current surge, the vaccine is the only 'Ram-baan' available," Health Minister Rajesh Tope said on Wednesday.</p> <p><strong>ALSO READ |<span style="color: #e03e2d;"><a style="color: #e03e2d;" href="https://ift.tt/3mrhcOF Curfew In Entire Punjab Till April 30': What's Shut &amp; Open</a></span></strong><br /><br />He revealed that he has already informed Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan about the situation at a virtual meeting of the health ministers of nine worst-hit states.</p> <p>The state health minister informed that because of the shortage of vaccines at various centres, people are being sent back.</p> <p>Previously, CM Uddhav Thackeray had written to PM Narendra Modi asking centre to allow everyone above the age of 25 to be vaccinated.</p> <p>BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Mayor Kishori Pednekar also supported the worry over the shortage of vaccine stocks in Mumbai, stating that they are on the verge of getting over.</p> <p>"We have barely 100,000 doses left now. Most of our vaccines are being supplied to government hospitals. If we don't get fresh stocks soon, we may not be able to administer the second dose to the people," a worried Pednekar told the media.</p> <p>Worries over vaccine shortage have been raised time and again by different states. Health Ministry had addressed these concerns in mid-March, informing that it distributed 7.54 crore doses of Covishield and Covaxin to States and Union Territories. Of these, only a little more than 4 crore shots had been used up so a sizeable reserve of vaccines was lying with the States.</p> <p>Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had at that point assured that the government is taking stock of the vaccines available with the States on a daily basis and the supply of vaccines to other countries was not being done at the cost of national interest.</p> <p>Meanwhile, as the concerns of shortage rise up again, the central government&rsquo;s response on the same is awaited.</p>

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