The weekly vaccination numbers have crashed below one crore this week for the first time since early March, dropping to just around 93 lakh — the lowest over the last ten weeks.
This is now an over 60 per cent drop from the highest weekly vaccination figure the country had achieved between April 3-9 — at 2.47 crore.
Also, out of the 93 lakh jabs given between May 15 and 21, nearly half of them were accounted for by the 18-44 age group for whom vaccination was opened on May 1, and states were asked to directly procure stocks for them.
Despite huge demand for jabs, with over six crore youngsters registering for the same, there is a clear shortage of vaccines for this category with a total of only 94 lakh getting the jab so far. Cyclone Tauktee has also impacted the vaccination drives this week in both Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, demand has plummeted for the second dose among the 45+ age group as well as the other priority groups this week.
While 67 lakh second doses were administered in the week between May 8-14, a little over 16 lakh second doses, only 18 per cent of total vaccinations, were given in the week starting May 15. This came after the government had last week doubled the interval between the two doses of Covishield to 12-16 weeks.
30 cr vaccines to be supplied to Centre, states till July 31
A majority of the people who got their first jab in March or April have apparently put off their second jabs.
Union Health Minister Harsh Varshan, in a review meeting with states on Friday, however, continued to press them to focus on the second dose for the 45+ age and priority groups.
Senior government officials, meanwhile, said vaccination numbers will improve from June with supplies improving and the number of active cases falling.
Also, with some states easing lockdown measures from June, it could encourage more people to freely step out for getting the jabs.
“We are expecting 30 crore vaccines to be supplied to the Centre and states by the two vaccine manufacturers over the next 70 days till July 31. This means there is capability to vaccinate over 40 lakh people daily till July as per the highest daily figure hit in April,” a senior government official has told News18.
It, however, remains unclear so far how many out of these 30 crore vaccines will go to the states till July for the 18-44 age group, the section which is most willing to take the jabs.
As per rough estimates, this is not expected to exceed about 35 per cent of all supplies. The Centre has so far said states would receive only 4.9 crore vaccine doses from the manufacturers till end of June for 18-44 age group, while nearly 5.5 crore doses will come to Centre till June 15 for states for 45+ group.
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