Centre's 60L jabs in July to slacken Karnataka's vaccination drive

Karnataka is set to receive nearly 60 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccines in July, allowing it to administer just about two lakh jabs daily, slowing down the pace of the vaccination drive.

According to an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court, the Centre has told states that 12 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines would be available in July, which includes the allocation for the private sector.

Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state, is set to receive over 1.91 crore doses of vaccines, while Maharashtra would receive over 1.51 crore doses. These are the only two states that have been allocated more than one crore doses.

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Karnataka has been assured of 59,98,450 doses of Covid-19 vaccines of which 49,77,830 will be Covishield and 10,20,630 that of Covaxin. The allocation includes 12,44,460 Covishield and 2,55,160 Covaxin doses for the private sector.

The Centre shared the “advance visibility of vaccine availability” with the states earlier this month and the same was submitted as part of the affidavit to the Supreme Court late Saturday evening.

A simple back of the envelope calculation indicates that on an average 38 lakh doses could be administered daily across the country, which is less than the average 64 lakh doses administered daily over the past week.

The government has said it aims to administer one crore doses of vaccines every day.

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According to the Karnataka Health Ministry bulletin, the state has administered over 26 lakh doses of vaccines between June 21 and June 27.

Kerala has been assured supply of over 36.50 lakh doses of vaccines, Tamil Nadu 71.01 lakh doses, Andhra Pradesh 70.86 lakh and Telangana 27.99 lakh.

The Centre allots to states on the basis of pro-rata population of 18 years and above age group, the Covid-19 disease burden based on the number of active cases in each region, and progress of the vaccination drive there. Wastage of vaccine doses earn negative marking.

Currently, India has been administering Covishield and Covaxin doses as part of the vaccination drive. Russia-made Sputnik V too has received emergency use authorisation in India and is being administered at private vaccination centres.