New Delhi: While several non-BJP ruled states like Maharashtra, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Delhi have raised the red flag around dwindling supplies of the COVID-19 vaccines and even resorted to closing some vaccination centres, Assam, where the BJP is in power, is also witnessing an acute shortage of the vaccine at a time when new cases are witnessing a record surge.Supply enough to meet only 2-3 days demandAccording to news portal East Mojo, the stock of vaccines in several districts is now just about enough to meet the demand over the next two to three days. The portal quoted additional chief medical and health officer of Tinsukia, Dr Romen Sonowal, as saying “up to 366 vials of COVID-19 vaccines are available in all the 24 cold chain points (CCPs) in the entire Tinsukia district. This includes nine vials in the district vaccine store.”Though Dr Sonowal tried to convey that there were vaccines available to meet the immediate demand, as they were vaccinating 3,000 people on a daily basis, the portal said Sonowal’s admission indicates that the district health authorities will be able to vaccinate people for just a few more days if more supplies were not made available to them.Sonowal also told the portal that one vial can vaccinate around 10 people and that the director of health services and family welfare had stated April 5 that more vaccines would be supplied after Bihu.Vaccine now available “only for second dose”Meanwhile, in several parts of the state, the vaccination centres are being told to only administer the second shot with the available vaccines and not to entertain people coming in to get themselves vaccinated for the first time.The portal said in Dibrugarh district, the office of joint director of health services (JDHS) on Thursday wrote a letter to four private hospitals directing them to provide only the “second dose of COVID-19 vaccine” due to “acute shortage”. It said the JDHS, Dr Krishna Kemprai, confirmed the order, saying: “We held a meeting with the additional deputy commissioner (health) and other stakeholders where it was decided to stop the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine until further orders at private hospitals.”The official added that “it was decided that due to acute shortage, only the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine (Covishield / Covaxin) will be given in the covid vaccination centre.”Most districts facing shortageSimilarly, the news portal citing a “reliable source” said the Jorhat district was also experiencing a shortage of vaccines. It quoted director of health services and family welfare, Munindra Nath Ngatey, as saying: ““We have stock of 270,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of today. On Wednesday (April 8), I wrote a letter to the government of India informing that we will be able to carry out vaccination in the state of Assam for two to three more days, after which we will be not in a position to conduct vaccination. Hence, I have requested them to initiate additional supplies of COVID-19 vaccines.”Also read: Centre Must Take Responsibility for Vaccine Shortages and Act NowHowever, the official said, there were “enough vaccines available at government institutions in Dibrugarh district to vaccinate people for two to three days”. Ngatey also denied that the vaccine supplies were related to Bihu, as had been claimed by Sonowal. “This is a false claim as I have not made any such sort of statement to anyone.”The portal said National Health Mission mission director, Dr S. Lakshmanan, too denied that there was any shortage of COVID-19 vaccines in Assam. He said around 270,000 doses of vaccines had been distributed across the state. “There may be a couple of locations where there may be shortage of vaccines and will be looked into,” he added.The mission director also stated that “on an average” around 40,000 to 50,000 people were being vaccinated daily over the last three days.Less than 2.39 lakh doses available in cold chain points, district storesMeanwhile, the state-wise data on vaccines revealed that at the 24 cold chain points, a total of 1,72,620 doses were available at 9 pm on April 9. However, in some districts like Darrang (490 doses), Dima Hasao (930 doses), Golaghat (540) and Karimganj (470), these numbers were now critically low.Similarly, while there were a total of 65,930 doses in the nine district, many of these like Dhemaji (no stock), Mongaon (160 doses) and Nalbari (240 doses) were running at very low levels of inventory. With a total of 11,770 doses in transit, the data revealed that the state had 250,120 vaccines available to it for meeting the needs of its citizens in the immediate future.The Centre had earlier blame opposition-ruled states of ‘mismanaging’ their vaccine supplies, saying there was no shortage.
