High-burden states to get Covid vaccines by next week: Govt

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Saturday assured the high burden states to supply nearly 1.17 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines by next week and more than 6,300 ventilators to fight the unprecedented second surge of the epidemic.

At a review meeting with state ministers and officials Vardhan said the total vaccine consumption (wastage included) so far was nearly 12.57 crore against the 14.15 crore doses provided by the Centre.

About 1 crore 58 lakh doses are still available with the states while another 1.17 crore doses are in the pipeline, to be delivered by next week. “Stocks of every small state are replenished after 7 days. For big states, the time period is 4 days,” he added.

Vardhan reviewed the situations in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, West Bengal, Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh that are reporting an unprecedented surge in new Covid-19 cases.

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As the states raised the issue of shortage of oxygen and Remdesivir, the officials informed them about the steps that have been taken to ensure better supply of both.

A calendar of medical oxygen supply from different oxygen manufacturers was shared with the states so that they can plan better in securing the life saving gas from the nearby sources.

On ventilators, the minister assured a fresh supply of the lifesaving machines: 1,121 ventilators are to be given to Maharashtra, 1,700 to Uttar Pradesh, 1,500 to Jharkhand, 1,600 to Gujarat, 152 to Madhya Pradesh and 230 to Chhattisgarh.

Vardhan said India was currently reporting the sharpest growth rate of 7.6% in new Covid-19 cases, which is 1.3 times higher than case growth rate of 5.5% reported in June 2020. This has led to an alarming rise in the number of active cases, which currently stand at nearly 17 lakhs.

“There is also a sharp growth of 10.2% in the number of deaths. The widening gap between daily new cases and daily new recoveries reflects that the infection is spreading at a much faster rate than recoveries with consistently growing active cases,” he added.