No Covid vaccine shortage in Maharashtra, Centre refutes media reports

The Centre said media reports are `not factually correct and do not reflect the correct picture of the available stock of balance and unutilised Covid vaccine doses with Maharashtra`.

New Delhi: Refuting media reports on COVID-19 vaccine shortage in Maharashtra, the Health Ministry said the state had over 24 lakh unutilised doses of Covaxin and received an additional 6.35 lakh doses on Friday.

According to the media reports, the state government is unable to increase the pace of vaccination due to a shortage in vaccine availability.

"As per their weekly consumption data available on Co-WIN, the average consumption by Maharashtra for Covaxin to cover the eligible beneficiaries for 15-17 years and for precaution dose is almost 2.94 lakh doses per day. Therefore, the state has adequate vaccine doses for about 10 days to cover the eligible beneficiaries with Covaxin," the ministry said in a statement.

"Furthermore, for Covishield, the state has 1.24 crore unutilised and balance doses available as on date. With an average consumption of 3.57 lakhs per day, this will sustain for more than 30 days for the beneficiaries to be vaccinated using the vaccine," it said.

Hence, the media reports are not factually correct and do not reflect the correct picture of the available stock of balance and unutilised Covid vaccine doses with Maharashtra, the ministry said.