Nearly 1.33 crore apply for COVID-19 vaccination; Several states wary of vaccine shortage

New Delhi, Apr 29: Nearly 1.33 crore people got themselves registered for vaccination on CoWIN website on Wednesday. In a tweet, National Health Authority CEO RS Sharma said, "We close the day with 1.33 Crore Registrations on Co-Win and delivered 2.78 crore SMSes."

The Indian government "liberalized and accelerated Phase 3 strategy of COVID-19 vaccination" by opening vaccination for all above 18 from May 1.

Many states have already notified the Centre about their vaccine requirement with Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said the state would require around 40 lakh vaccines a week.

Reports of the shortage of vaccines are coming in from various parts of the country.

In Mumbai, people are seen standing in long queues outside the vaccination centres in scorching heat and humidity but were left disappointed when they were told that the vaccination centres were closed due to the non-availability of the vaccine.

Several people complained that at some of the 75 functional centres out of the total 135 in Mumbai, the vaccine stock got over within a couple of hours after the process began in the morning.

The situation was the same in cities like Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad, Nashik and Nagpur where people stood up in long queues for hours for receiving the shots.