Mumbai: Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Thursday responded over the concerns of Covid-19 vaccine shortage after the Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan lashed out at the state alleging mishandling of the pandemic situation.
The Coronavirus vaccine shortage is becoming the fresh subject of faceoff between the Maharashtra state government and centre especially after the state reported that it is left with stock sufficient for only 3 days.
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In fresh comments, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh alleged that fewer vaccine doses were being sent to the state. He was quoted by news agency ANI as saying: "According to the latest release order of vaccines from Centre, Maharashtra has been given 7.5 lakh vaccine dosages only. While Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, etc have been given far more vaccines than Maharashtra".
"I talked to Dr Harshavardhan immediately after this, even Sharad Pawar talked to him. I raised the issue of discrimination with us. We have the most number of active patients, positivity rate, and death with a 12 crore population. Why we are given so few vaccines?" he added.
Rajesh Tope informed Dr Harshvardhan assured him that corrections will be done soon but "We are still waiting. We want 1.6 crore vaccine dosages per month and 40 lakh every week because we are vaccinating 6 lakh people every day".
Maharashtra Health Minister stated that Satara, Sangli, Panvel have stopped vaccination today while Buldhana has only today's vaccine stock left.
These comments have come in after Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan criticised both Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh over reporting a shortage of vaccine stock.
"The inability of Maharashtra government to act responsibly is beyond comprehension. To spread panic among the people is to compound the folly further. Vaccine supplies are being monitored on a real-time basis, and State governments are being apprised regularly about it," Dr Harsh Vardhan said on Wednesday.
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The Union Health Minister went on to call the allegations of vaccine shortage "utterly baseless". "Throughout last year as Union Health Minister, I have been witness to misgovernance and casual approach of Maharashtra government in battling the virus. Their lackadaisical attitude singularly bogged down the country’s efforts to fight virus," he said lashing out at the Maharashtra government.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand Health Minister Banna Gupta also reported that the state's vaccine stock will be sufficient only for the next 1-2 days. "We have made a request to the Union Home Minister and I am hopeful that he will provide us with the vaccine," he said
" We requested him to immediately provide us around 10 lakh vaccines for the first dose. We will get it either today or tomorrow," he added.
(With Agency Inputs)