The sudden shortage of vaccines has undeniably slowed down the vaccination drive in the country. Among the states, Maharashtra has been pretty vocal about the shortage. On April 9, several vaccination centres in Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra declared that they had run out of stock. Reportedly, 51 centres in Mumbai have downed shutters, leaving people in the lurch, while the remaining 69 centres continued to work with depleting stocks. Efforts are on to replenish stock at many of the centres.

New Delhi has, however, dismissed the state government’s claim as an excuse for its failure in containing the pandemic. The Union health minister, Harsh Vardhan, claimed that there was no shortage, and the country has over 43 million doses in stock or in the pipeline, calling what Maharashtra did was “fear-mongering”. He was referring to Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope who said on April 7 that the state government had vaccines to last just three days. He had demanded 40 lakh doses weekly to scale up the vaccination drive in the state. With the state already vaccinating up to 4.5 lakh daily, it had set a higher target of 6 lakh doses daily. According to the minister, the state carried out only 3.88 lakh vaccinations on April 6 as the supply hit the drive.

As the second wave of the pandemic sweeps the country, some states are staring at another round of lockdown and the migration of the labour force, a rerun of events that unfolded in March 2020. The grim situation has raised several questions on the government’s inability to mobilise the idle capacity and quickly augment production, instead of letting Russians take over the capacity lying unutilised in the country.

“The current rise in Covid-19 cases is of concern and has the potential of overwhelming health care systems, unless checked right now,” health secretary Rajesh Bhushan has warned the state governments. In a letter addressed to the chief secretaries of state governments, Bhushan has asked them to beef up their vigil for the pandemic and the fallout, making it mandatory for social distancing, sanitisation, and wearing of masks.

‘Test, Track and Treat' effectively is the only mantra to control the spread of the deadly virus, he adds.

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