"While we had placed orders with the manufacturers as per the new policy, we got a reply from the Centre. This means the centre is deciding which state will get how much," Delhi's Deputy CM Manish Sisodia said.
Delhi was told by the Centre that it would get only 3.69 lakh vaccine doses in the month of May despite placing an order for 1.34 crore doses, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia alleged Monday.
Delhi has been flagging an impending vaccine shortage in the city for the past two days, with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal writing to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, asking for the centre’s help.
Sisodia was reacting to BJP’s statement that the state government ordered only 5.5 lakh doses and did not plan well for vaccination.
“BJP has said today that the Delhi government placed orders only for 5.5 lakh vaccines. This big lie can be proved wrong by two documents. In April, when the Centre changed the method for procurement of vaccines, we placed an order for 1.34 crore vaccine doses to the two manufacturers.
“This is what Delhi needs for those in the age bracket of 18-44. While we did not hear back from the companies, the Centre wrote to us and said that Delhi could only get 92,840 doses of Covaxin and 2,67,690 doses of Covishield in May. While we had placed orders with the manufacturers as per the new policy, we got a reply from the Centre. This means the centre is deciding which state will get how much,” Sisodia said.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said Monday that the city is left with just a day’s stock of Covaxin and the Covishield stock will run out in another three to four days.
So far 30.35 lakh people have been given at least one shot of the vaccine, while 8.61 lakh people have got both doses.
Sisodia had hit out at the Centre on Sunday for exporting 6.6 crore vaccine doses to other countries “without ensuring there was enough for Indian citizens”.
He was referring to a report in The Indian Express, which said that under the Centre’s Vaccine Maitri programme, more than 6.5 crore doses of Covid vaccines — almost all Covishield — were sent to 93 countries.
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