"Why is there a shortage of vaccines when Maharashtra has the highest number of covid cases?", Tope questions Centre

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Thursday held a press conference on the issue of closure of many vaccination centers in the state due to non-availability of doses of corona vaccine.Earlier, he said that the state is facing a vaccine shortage and has requested 40 lakh doses every week from the Centre.

"I talked to Dr Harshavardhan immediately after this, even Sharad Pawar talked to him. I raised issue of discrimination with us. We have most number active patients, positivity rate and death with 12 crore population. Why we are given so few vaccines?," said Rajesh Tope. 

"Harshvardhan Ji assured me that corrections will be done soon. We are still waiting. We want 1.6 crore vaccine dosages per month & 40 lakh every week because we are vaccinating 6 lakh people every day," said Rajesh Tope. 

The health minister further said,"According to the latest release order of vaccines from Centre, Maharashtra has been given 7.5 lakh vaccine dosages only. While Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana etc have been given far more vaccines than Maharashtra."

He also said that places like Satara, Sangli, Panvel have stopped vaccination today while Buldhana has only today's vaccine stock left due to vaccine shortage.

Tope compared the supply of vaccines to Gujarat and Maharashtra."Maharashtra has twice the population of Gujarat. There are more than four and a half lakh active patients in Maharashtra today. At present, there are only 17,000 active patients in Gujarat. But more vaccines are being supplied to Gujarat than to Maharashtra. There is coordination between the centre and the state. But the supply should be as per the need and this is a very real demand ", said Rajesh Tope.

I talked to Dr Harshavardhan immediately after this, even Sharad Pawar talked to him. I raised issue of discrimination with us. We have most number active patients, positivity rate and death with 12 crore population. Why we are given so few vaccines?: Maharashtra Health Minister

— ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2021

Satara, Sangli, Panvel have stopped vaccination today while Buldhana has only today's vaccine stock left: Rajesh Tope, Maharashtra Health Minister

— ANI (@ANI) April 8, 2021