Pointless statements: Health Minister on vaccine shortage claims

New Delhi: Nearly a week after taking oath as Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandviya slammed states for flagging low covid-19 vaccine stocks. He alleged states are making "useless statements" and creating "panic among the people."

In a series of tweets posted in Hindi, Mansukh Mandaviya accused states of "mismanagement". He said they had been informed of available supplies in advance but had failed to plan accordingly.

"Regarding availability of vaccines, I have received information from letters of various state governments and leaders. This situation can be better understood by an actual analysis of the facts. Useless statements are being made only to create panic among the people," he tweeted.

"The centre informed the states on June 19... about how many doses of the vaccine would be available in July. After this, on June 27 and July 13, states were informed about availability of vaccines every day for the first and second fortnights of July," he wrote."The centre has done this so states can do the work of vaccination... by planning properly and people do not face problems," he added in a tweet.

The health minister's reaction comes after many states including Tamil Nadu and Delhi, once again cautioned the centre that they are running out of doses.

Notably, in this week, Tamil Nadu's new chief minister MK Stalin had wrote to the prime minister Narendra Modi to say the state is not being allotted enough vaccine doses.

Mr Stalin asked for a special shipment of 1 crore doses, pointing out that the current allocation of 302 doses per 1,000 eligible members of its population was grossly inadequate, particularly when compared to Gujarat, Karnataka and Rajasthan.

However, Mr Mandaviya today dismissed such claims, declaring that was "13.5 crore in the month of July" - up from "11.46 crore in June".

The centre from June 21 onwards re-took control of vaccinations last month as it has said it will vaccinate all by end-2021.