Centre keeps Telangana on tenterhooks over vaccines quota

Hyderabad: The free vaccination programme, which is set to begin from June 21 across the country for all above 18 years, is initiated by the Centre. The Centre would distribute vaccines based on the details submitted by the State Governments. But so far, the Government of Telangana State has no clue on how many doses it would get from the Centre.

The Centre says that 1.05-crore doses were available with the States (all States put together) and that another 47,43,580 doses would be distributed among all States. But top officials of the State Government told The Hans India that the Union Ministry of Health has not yet informed the State about the quantum of doses it would send to launch the free vaccination programme from June 21.

At present, the State is purchasing seven to eight lakh doses of vaccine per month from the two vaccine manufacturing companies in India. The Centre was supplying five to six lakh doses to Telangana. Officials said that nearly 20 lakh doses are required to continue the vaccination for all once the Centre rolls out the next phase of the vaccination programme.

The officials said that the State has 8.5 lakh vaccine stocks which would be enough to meet the requirement till June 18. Officials apprehend that the Centre may not be able to supply more than 10 lakh doses per month as the demand in all States has gone up. According to them, the State would require 3.5 crore vaccine to cover all those who are above 18 years.

Nearly 60 lakhs are waiting for the second dose. Officials said that the three main conditions - population, positivity rate and vaccine wastage, stipulated by the Centre, would not help the State to get adequate vaccines in time from the Union Government.

Since the purchase of vaccine is now centralised, the State cannot buy directly from the manufacturers. This could slow down the process of achieving the target of vaccination for all by year-end, they said.