Govt slams states: No Covid-19 vaccine shortage, only poor planning

Denying that there was any vaccine shortage, the Union health ministry on Tuesday said there were 16.7 million doses of vaccines available with Indian states. It was a problem of planning and not availability of vaccines, the Centre said, putting the blame on states.

Rajesh Bhushan, Union health secretary, said that there were over 20 million doses in the pipeline to be distributed to states. He said that a “bird’s eye view” showed that there was no dearth of vaccines in the country. States have already received more than 131 million doses of vaccines (131,090,370 doses), and have utilised (including wastage)