'Ensure vax supply, don't gag states from sharing stock info'

New Delhi: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday said the Central government should focus on ensuring an adequate supply of vaccines to all states instead of preventing them from sharing information regarding the remaining stocks.

His remarks came a day after the Centre wrote to states and Union Territories advising them not to share the data of the Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) system on vaccine stocks and the temperature of vaccine storage in the public domain, saying it is "sensitive information and to be used only for programme improvement".

In a tweet, Sisodia said: "Am amazed at the order of Central Govt that prevents states from sharing information regarding vaccine stocks! The Central Govt needs to focus on ensuring an adequate supply of vaccine to all, rather than hiding the true position of vaccine availability from the public."

The Delhi government shares information on vaccine stocks and doses administered every day through a vaccination bulletin. The eVIN system is used to track the vaccine stock status and the temperature at all levels of vaccine storage, from national to sub-district level.

In its letter, the Union Health ministry said it was overwhelming to see that all states are using the system to update the stock and transactions of Covid vaccines on a daily basis.

"In this regard, please be advised that data and analytics generated by eVIN for inventory and temperature is owned by the Ministry of Health and not to be shared with any other organisation, partner agency, media agency, online and offline public forums without the consent of the ministry," the letter read.

According to Thursday's vaccine bulletin, Delhi has around 28,000 doses of Covaxin and 5.2 lakh doses of Covishield left for those aged above 45 years, frontline workers and healthcare workers. For the 18-44 age category, the state reserves show that there are 50,110 Covaxin doses (only for the second dose) and 1.2 lakh Covishield doses.

The city reported 305 new infections and 44 more deaths from the virus on Thursday with a 0.41 per cent positivity rate.