Only six states will be able to begin vaccination as India expands the scope of vaccination to include those over the age of 18 on Saturday, due to a vaccine shortage in the rest of the country.
Kerala, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, and Maharashtra all have claimed that they do not have enough vaccine doses for those ages of 18 – 44. In several of these states, the vaccination drive will be restricted to a few districts.
Three lakh Covishield doses were distributed on Friday evening in Maharashtra, the country’s worst-affected Covid-19 state, for the May 1 exercise, after chief minister Uddhav Thackeray announced that everyone in the 18-44 age group would be vaccinated and that the state would cover the cost. Pune, Mumbai, and Thane each provided 20,000 doses, while the majority of the districts received anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 doses.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday asked people ages of 18 to 44 not to queue outside Covid-19 vaccination centers starting May 1, based on the fact that the national capital has yet to receive doses. He estimates that 0.3 million doses of Covishield will be available by May 3.
Karnataka’s health minister, K Sudhakar, has stated that the state does not have enough vaccine to begin the drive on Saturday. “Karnataka has issued a purchase order for over ten million doses. However, they are not prepared to begin delivery as scheduled today. We are requesting that people between the ages of 18 and 45 avoid from going to hospitals in the mistaken belief that they will be vaccinated “he said
Goa’s chief minister, Pramod Sawant, has stated that the state will begin vaccinating those ages of 18 – 45 against Covid-19 “as and when” vaccine doses are available. He stated that the Goa government has put an order for 0.5 million doses of the Covishield vaccine with the Serum Institute of India. “Vaccination for the 18-45 age group will start when we collect doses,” Sawant said.
The West Bengal government has said that the vaccination drive for those between 18 to 45 years of age will begin as and when the state receives the vaccine doses. “Vaccination of those above 45 years will continue,” the state government said in an order.
Punjab health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu has said the vaccination drive for the 18 plus category in the state may get delayed as there are not enough doses of Covid-19 vaccine. “We are not getting adequate doses of vaccines. That is why we are facing problems. We have staff and required infrastructure for vaccination,” Sidhu said.
Those between the ages of 18 and 45 will have to wait until September, according to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy. “Vaccination for people aged 18 to 45 will take four months to complete, which means they will not be vaccinated by the end of January next year,” Jagan said in a statement.
“While the CoWIN platform has opened registration for vaccination of eligible persons in the age group 18-45, vaccination will not begin until May 1. It will start at a later date once the vaccine supply has been established,” the Department of Information and Public Relations said on Twitter.
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