Vaccine Shortage: Covid-19 shots administered in May fall by 10 lakh in 10 days

India has witnessed a drop of nearly 10 lakh Covid-19 vaccination doses over 10 days in May in what may be yet another sign of how a shortfall in vaccine supply cripples the world’s biggest adult vaccination drive.

On May 21, a total of 13.8 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccines were administered all over the country, which is significantly less than the 23.85 lakh doses administered on May 11.

The numbers improved a bit to 15.52 lakh doses a day later, but this is also less than 17.7 lakh doses administered on May 12. Only on four days in May, the vaccination crossed the 20-lakh mark with the highest inoculation taking place on May 10 with 24.3 lakh doses. Ten days later on May 20, only 13.83 lakh jabs were given.

The week between May 5-11 was the best in terms of vaccination after which there is a steady slide in the number of shots given to people.

“The poor timing of expanding eligibility increased demand significantly without increasing supply. This model risks worsening inequities in access within India, making it harder for the most vulnerable populations to access vaccines,” Krishna Udaykumar, a professor of global health medicine at Duke University, USA told DH in an interview earlier this month.

The Union Health Ministry said more than 1.90 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses (1,90,20,313) are still available with the states for administration. Furthermore, 40,650 vaccine doses are in the pipeline and will be received by the states within the next three days.

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The Centre has so far provided more than 21.8 crore vaccine doses (21,80,51,890) to the states of which the total consumption including wastages stands at 19,90,31,577 doses.

On Friday, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said India would be in a position to vaccinate all of its adult population by the end of 2021, but experts pointed out that to achieve this, the country had to give 80 lakh jabs every single day for the rest of the year.

Earlier this week, a top official of Serum Institute of India observed that allowing vaccination for multiple age groups without taking into account the production capacity has created the scarcity currently being seen in the country.

“Initially, 300 million people were targeted for vaccination for which 600 million dosages of vaccines were required, but before we reached the target, additional age groups were added starting from 45 years onwards followed by 18 years onwards. We should have followed the WHO guidelines and prioritised vaccination accordingly to avoid scarcity,” Suresh Jadhav, executive director of SII had stated at a public event.

The company, however, has distanced itself from Jadhav’s statement.