'500 centres closed due to vax shortage'

New Delhi: Despite having the manpower and arrangements to administer three to four lakh vaccine shots per day the Delhi government is being forced to shut down vaccination centres due to the Centre's inability to maintain a regular supply chain, Health Minister Satyendra Jain said on Tuesday. He added that the Capital had received stock of 1.5 lakh Covishield vaccines on Monday night which will last just a day. Moreover, while the city has over 2 lakh doses of Covaxin with it, only 20 per cent can be used for the first dose and the rest being reserved for those due for their second dose.

"This in effect will again cause the centres to shut after the stock gets finished on Tuesday. We have at the maximum around 1.68 lakh vaccines which would not last beyond Tuesday or one half of Wednesday. We have to shut down vaccination centres because of a lack of vaccines," Jain said.

Around 500 vaccination centres have closed due to lack of vaccines and the Delhi Government, unlike the Haryana Government, cannot slowly vaccinate people just to hoard vaccine stocks, the Minister added.

The fresh stocks boosting Delhi's vaccination numbers was reflected on the Cowin Dashboard, according to which, over 1.28 lakh doses were administered on Tuesday. The Delhi government data showed that on Monday, only around 36,000 doses were given out.