JAIPUR: A day after the Centre allowed jabs for people aged 18 and above from May 1, the Rajasthan government raised the issue of availability of enough doses of vaccines as above-45 age group were not yet fully vaccinated because of the short supply.
“Who will ensure time-bound availability of vaccines for the above 18 population? It will become an issue later that the state failed to vaccinate the above 18 population,” health minister Raghu Sharma said on Tuesday.
The Centre has empowered states to procure additional vaccine doses directly from the manufacturers, as well as open up vaccination to any category of people above the age of 18 for the same. “The success of vaccination of above 18 depends on the availability of the vaccines equal to the number of beneficiaries. It will be the responsibility of the Centre to ensure availability of the vaccines for above 18,” said Sharma.
The state government had demanded from the Centre to allow vaccination for people above 18 years.
Concerned over limited supply of vaccines from the Centre,the state claimed that the Union government had taken the responsibility of vaccinating people aged 45 years and above, but majority of them have still not received the doses.
“There was a time when we put boards mentioning unavailability of vaccines. We had done preparations and prepared storage facilities. We have a capacity of vaccinating 7 lakh doses per day, but we have only 14 lakh doses available. The 14 lakh doses were sent after we wrote letters at different levels to the Centre,” said Sharma.
While the state is witnessing sudden spurt in Covid cases, the health department has issued directions to the officials to scale up vaccination drive (above 45) in areas which are worst affected for preventing moratalities.
Also, collectors have been asked to ensure vaccination of staff of police department, revenue department, public health and engineering department, power department, bank employees, labourers, grocers, vegetable vendors, medical stores, street vendors, milk sellers, journalists and hawkers.
