A nurse prepares to administer a shot of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Reacting to reports that the state may run out of vaccines, the union government clarified on Tuesday that there is no shortage of Covid-19 vaccines in Rajasthan.
Reports said Rajasthan's health and family welfare department had sent an SOS message to the Centre about a paucity of the vaccine doses in the state. It had reportedly asked for a buffer stock while alerting that the current stock may get over within three days which would hamper the on-going immunisation drive against Covid-19.
To this, the union health ministry clarified that the state has enough vaccine doses at its disposal.
"The factual position is that there is no shortage of COVID-19 vaccine in the state at present. Rajasthan has been supplied 37.61 lakh doses and has consumed only 24.28 lakh doses till yesterday night," a statement by the ministry of health and family welfare stated.
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"The central government is regularly monitoring availability of vaccine supply in all states and UTs (union territories), and providing the doses as per their requirement and consumption pattern," it added.
Rajasthan has chosen 67 lakh beneficiaries which includes healthcare workers, frontline workers and those among the prioritised age group. Over 29.9 lakh doses have been administered since the mega vaccination drive began on January 16.
In the current phase of vaccination, around 27 crores of the population aged above 60 or above 45 with co-morbid conditions are prioritised by the government to receive the vaccines against Covid-19.
Vaccination is being provided free of charge at the government health facilities while it costs Rs 250 in private facilities.
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