The Centre has proposed to allocate more than 35 lakh doses of vaccines to Jharkhand in the month of August to continue the ongoing immunisation drive against Covid-19, latest vaccine supply schedule released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) highlighted on Tuesday.
While the Centre will provide at least 27,46,930 vaccine doses for free to the State, as many as 7,95,250 doses will be made available for purchase by private hospitals and clinics involved in the immunisation drive, a document shared by the MoHFW stated.
With at least 35,32,180 vaccine doses assured, Jharkhand will be in a position to inoculate at least 1 lakh residents daily in the month of August, health officials said. The state, as per records with the health department, has at least 3377 session sites for vaccination and the infrastructure to immunize over 3 lakh residents every day.
The state, as per government records, received around 25 lakh vaccine doses in the month of July. However, delayed supply of vaccines hit the immunisation drive for several days in Jharkhand as districts ran out of vaccines, officials said. Owing to the crisis of vaccines, the state achieved the lowest single day vaccination figure of barely 13,000 in the month of July.
While the increase in the number of vaccine doses in the month of August may help in smooth running of the campaign, many residents desiring to get Covaxin dose or waiting for their second dose of this vaccine may have to deal with a shortage, sources said.
The vaccine supply schedule indicates that the state might only manage to administer 15,000 doses of Covaxin in a day against over 90,000 Covishield doses on an average. As per the schedule of vaccine supply, the state will receive 24,08,650 Covishield doses and 3,38,280 Covaxin doses free of cost. At least 6,88,130 Covishield doses and 1,07,120 Covaxin doses will be made available for purchase by private hospitals.
According to MoHFW, Jharkhand has at least 2,60,86,097 eligible vaccine beneficiaries and the state may receive over 3.5 crore vaccines on pro rata basis.
The state has so far received 93,02,030 doses of vaccines from the Centre for running the immunisation drive against Covid-19, highlights data with the National Health Mission (NHM). As per NHM data shared on Tuesday evening, the state has so far administered at least one dose of vaccine to 90,32,969 residents, including some who took the Russian Sputnik V vaccine procured separately by private hospitals.