NEW DELHI: India is the fastest country globally to reach the landmark of administering 17 crore doses in 114 days, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan
The minister interacted with state health ministers and principal secretaries/additional chief secretaries of eight states Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Telangana depicting a high growth rate in the number of daily cases, higher mortality, very high and growing positivity rate, according to the Health Ministry.
The war of words has escalated between the ruling Biju Janata Dal and the Opposition BJP over the shortage of Covid-19 vaccines in Odisha.
Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday hit out at Odisha health secretary P.K. Mohapatra for making an “unnecessary” fuss over the vaccine shortage. But the ground reality shows that inadequate supply has led to the stoppage of the vaccination drive in 11 out of 30 districts of the state.
Pradhan said: “More than 45 lakh vaccines have been released to the state out of a stock of 11 to 12 crore doses. The shortage of vaccines in Odisha is a non-issue. Every alternative day, around 2.5 lakh vaccines are reaching the state.”
The 11 districts – Bhadrak, Boudh, Dhenkanal, Gajapati, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Koraput, Nayagarh, Puri, Sambalpur and Sonepur – have run out of Covid-19 vaccines. No vaccination against Covid-19 was carried out in these districts on Tuesday.