Coronavirus vaccine: Harsh Vardhan to meet health ministers of states lagging in COVID-19 vaccination

New Delhi, May 12: Stressing the pace of vaccination is very crucial to deal with the second wave of coronavirus in India, some states are lagging behind in inoculating the population against viral infection. To address the issue, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan will be meeting with the health ministers of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Telangana on Wednesday.

The central government launched its liberalised and accelerated phase 3 strategy to vaccinate everyone in the age bracket 18-44 years on May 1. More than 180 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far as of May 11, as per the data provided by the Union health ministry.

Uttarakhand, Haryana, Bihar and Jharkhand are noted to be emerging as COVID-19 hotspots in the country with the highest active COVID-19 caseload and deaths related to the disease. Vaccination, which is an integral component in the five-point strategy of the Centre for containment and management of the pandemic (including test, track, treat and COVID appropriate behaviour), thus needs to be boosted in these states.

Uttarakhand, which reported the highest mortality rate of 33 deaths per lakh population on Monday, asked the government if the state can directly import the vaccines from abroad. State chief secretary Om Prakash said that the state needs one lakh vaccine doses per day.

Jammu and Kashmir has so far consumed over 27.5 lakh vaccine doses, Uttarakhand has consumed over 23.9 lakh vaccine doses, Haryana consumed more than 44.29 lakh vaccine doses and have over 3.72 lakh doses available in balance, while 150,000 vaccine doses are in pipeline, Punjab has consumed a total over 41.47 lakh doses, Bihar has consumed over 82.39 lakh doses and has a balance of over 5.27 lakh, Jharkhand has consumed nearly 34 lakh vaccine doses, has over 400,000 in balance and 100,000 in the pipeline, Odisha has consumed over 62 lakh vaccine doses and Telangana has consumed over 52.82 lakh vaccine doses, as of Tuesday. The total consumption also includes wastage. Haryana on Tuesday reported the highest vaccine wastage followed by Assam and Rajasthan.

On Wednesday, India reported more than 382,000 Covid-19 infections and over 4,000 fatalities in the last 24 hours, as per the ministry's Covid-19 dashboard.