Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday demanded 40 lakh more COVID-19 vaccine doses from the Centre on an urgent basis to inoculate the state’s eligible population.
Singh said the state was expecting 2.46 lakh doses to arrive Tuesday but noted that vaccines remain in short supply as it has run out of Covishield and was left with a mere 3,500 Covaxin doses as of Monday.
Punjab has already vaccinated more than 90 lakh eligible people (nearly 37 per cent of the eligible population) and has been utilising the stock without any wastage, the CM said in an official statement after a review meeting.
The Centre needs to arrange for immediate delivery of vaccines to the state to meet the shortfall and enable inoculation of all those needing the second dose, while continuing with the vaccination of other eligible persons, he said.
Pointing out that doses being supplied to private hospitals are getting wasted as people prefer government hospitals for free inoculation, Health Secretary Hussan Lal informed the meeting that the state has sought diversion of the stocks from the private hospitals but had not received any response so far from the Centre.