As India fights the second, deadlier wave of coronavirus, an internal spat has risen among states and the Centre as the former complained of a vaccine shortage and the latter assuring the public that these claims are incorrect.
Multiple vaccination centres in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha remained shut as the states rationed their supply of vaccines amid a surge in Covid-19 cases. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi wrote to the Prime Minister saying that India is facing a 'vaccine starvation' and demanded from him that production be ramped up.
To counter these claims, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan took to Twitter to "stop the fear-mongering", saying that India has no shortage of vaccines.
At the heart of this debate is Maharashtra, the epicentre of the second wave of Covid-19 in India. State Health Minister Rajesh Tope, in a press conference earlier this week, said the vaccine stocks in the state are poor, blaming the Centre for the same. Tope took potshots at the Modi government saying that the state will soon exhaust its vaccine supply.
He further alleged that BJP-ruled states including Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana are getting priorities over the non-BJP states. "Maharashtra is a big state, geographically and population-wise. We have a population of 12 crore and we got 1.04 crore vaccines so far, but if we compare it with Gujarat, it has a population of 6 crore, nearly half of our state's size, but it got 1 crore vaccines,” he said.
Many vaccination centres in Mumbai reported halting their vaccination processes as they ran out of doses.
Similarly, the Jharkhand government said on Thursday it has enough vaccination doses left to inoculate people for two more days. Jharkhand health minister Banna Gupta told NDTV, that 83 lakh people need to get first and second doses in the state and it needs around 1.60 crore doses. "We are getting it gradually. We do have vaccines available with us but there has been a shortage at some locations," he said.
There was news of interruptions in vaccinations in Chennai due to a shortage of doses. Some districts of Andhra Pradesh also had to stop the drive due to a lack of doses.
It was reported that the Chhattisgarh government, which recently announced a 10-day lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19, is not able to manage with the current stockpile of vaccines. Punjab's CM Amarinder Singh had made similar claims, saying that it was unable to ramp up inoculations despite the state witnessing an unprecedented surge in cases, as the supply was not as much as it should be.
With half of Odishas vaccination centres having halted activities for want of Covishield, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik also drew the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the problem and requested him to ensure that the state gets to stock up doses 10 days in advance for the inoculation drive to run smoothly.
Dr Harsh Vardhan lashed out at Maharashtra and other states, accusing them of trying to cover their "failures" in containing the pandemic by making "deplorable" attempts through "irresponsible" statements to distract attention and spreading panic among people.
In a strongly-worded statement, the minister rubbished Maharashtra government's claim of shortage of vaccines as "utterly baseless", and said the "lackadaisical" attitude of the state government has "singularly bogged down" the entire country's efforts to fight the virus.
During his meeting with the Chief Ministers to assess the Covid-19 situation in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged everyone not to make this a political issue and fight together against the virus.