No COVID-19 vaccination drive on May 1 due to unavailability: Shivraj Singh Chauhan

Bhopal: The vaccination drive against COVID-19 for people aged 18 to 45 will be not be beginning from May 1 in Madhya Pradesh as vaccines are not available, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan informed on Thursday.

While speaking at a press conference, the Chief Minister said the state government had spoken to both the country's COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers - Serum Institue of India and Bharat Biotech, and were informed that they would not be able to provide doses of the vaccine.

"The campaign to vaccinate the youth above the age of 18 was supposed to start on May 1. For this, the government had issued orders for both COVAXIN and Covishield but were informed that they will not be able to give us the dosage. Hence the vaccination program will not be starting on May 1," Chauhan said.

He added that the campaign to vaccinate citizens above the age of 45 for free would continue by the Central government.

Chauhan further urged citizens not to panic and said that the vaccination drive would begin as soon as doses were available.

"We know that there is a limit to the production. As soon as they are available to us we will get the vaccine dosage. Be patient, there is no need to panic," he said.

Earlier last week, Chauhan had announced that all citizens between the age of 18 to 45 would be vaccinated by the state for free.

The Centre has recently announced that all above 18 years of age eligible to get vaccinated from May 1. It has also allowed state governments and private hospitals to purchase vaccines from manufacturers.

Registration for the new eligible population groups has commenced from 4 pm on Wednesday. Potential beneficiaries can either register directly on Co-WIN portal (cowin.gov.in) or through the Aarogya Setu app.

Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh reported 12,762 fresh COVID-19 cases and 95 deaths on Thursday, the state health department informed.

The COVID tally in the state has reached 5,50,927, out of which 4,53,331 people have recovered from the disease.

According to the health department, as many as 59,388 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours and the positivity rate in the state is at 21.4 per cent.