Reserve 70% Covid-19 vaccines for second shot: Harsh Vardhan

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday asked the states to reserve 70% of their vaccine doses for the second shot while using the rest to administer the first dose as a significantly large population has received only the first dose of the two-dose regimen.

"Of the 17 crore doses administered in the last 114 days, as many as 13.66 crore people have been administered the first dose, the second dose has been administered to only 3.86 crore. Hence it is very important that we first focus more on second dose vaccinations. States should not lose sight of those who are to get the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine," the minister said at a meeting with the health ministers of eight states and UTs.

Read | India’s new Covid-19 cases have peaked, Cambridge tracker shows

Even after nearly four months, the first targeted group of one crore healthcare workers did not receive the two doses of the vaccine. Just about 96 lakh of such workers got the first dose while nearly 66 lakh received both doses.

Among the frontline workers whose vaccination began 15 days after the healthcare workers, 1.42 crore received the first dose, whereas 80 lakh received both.

Talking to the ministers of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Telangana, Vardhan asked them to ensure that healthcare workers and frontline workers were fully vaccinated as they belonged to the vulnerable categories.

On vaccine availability, the minister said every month 50% of the vaccine doses of every manufacturer would be available for direct procurement by the state and private hospitals while the Centre would continue to procure its share of 50% of the vaccines and make it available to the states free of cost as was being done earlier.

However, in an affidavit in the Supreme Court, the Central had earlier clarified that the Union government in consultation with the vaccine manufacturers would determine the pro-rata population of each state in the age group of 18-44 and each state would procure only that quantity so that there is no disparity in availability of vaccines between the states based on the difference in their bargaining power.

Each state has been informed by the central government in writing about the number of vaccines it would receive for the month of May.

“In addition, the production capacity of the vaccine manufacturers is also being ramped up. It will touch 8 crore doses by May 2021 and 9 crore in June 2021,” Vardhan said.

The minister’s clarifications on Covid-19 vaccines come on a day when India recorded 3.48 lakh new cases in the past 24 hours (Health Ministry data released at 8 AM).

The total number of active cases stands at 37 lakh for the past five consecutive days and there is a net decline in the number of active cases in the last 24 hours for the second consecutive day.

The death count, however, remains on the higher side with a toll of 4,205 recorded in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra tops the list with 793 casualties followed by Karnataka (480) and Delhi (347).