As Covid cases surge, a look at how India is doing on the vaccination front

India has been witnessing a surge in Covid-19 cases resulting in the states strengthening their Covid protocols and bringing back mask mandates. The country has recorded 11,109 new Coronavirus cases today, making it the highest tally in 236 days.

As the active caseload stands at 49,622 let us take a deep dive into the status of India on the vaccination front.

In terms of total vaccination, India has currently utilised 2,20,66,25,120 doses including the first, second and the precautionary jab.

Also Read | Hospitalisation rate low despite increase in cases, says Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal

As each state struggles with the spike in Covid, the utilisation of vaccines among its citizens becomes a major determinant of the safety quotient in the state.

States with maximum vaccine consumption

As per the Cumulative Coverage Report of Covid-19 Vaccination, the state with the maximum number of vaccine beneficiaries is Uttar Pradesh, with 39,20,06,657 doses consumed.

Total doses are a cumulation of the 1st and 2nd doses consumed by the 12-18+ population as well as the precautionary dose.

In UP, 15,40,95,846 beneficiaries got jabbed with the first dose while only 14,78,66,306 took the second dose despite it being mandatory. The optional booster dose recipients dropped massively to only 3,66,41,152.

The other states that have had a high consumption of cumulative vaccine doses include Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

When it comes to booster doses, Gujarat tops the list in the 18-59 years category.

States with the least vaccine consumption

Lakshadweep consumed a total of 1,45,280 vaccines making it rank at the bottom of the list of state-wise beneficiaries followed by Ladakh, Daman and Diu and Andaman and Nicobar with 5,67,133; 6,80,190 and 9,91,263 respective consumption.

States running out of vaccines

Despite the worrisome surge in Covid cases across India, there are states at present which are struggling to keep up with their vaccine stocks while some have even run out of them. T K Anil Kumar, Principal Secretary, Karnataka Health Department, told DH that their request to the Centre for one lakh Corbevax doses in the third week of March has been turned down by the health ministry. DH’s search for vaccination centres on the CoWin portal on April 8 gave only two results — one in Bengaluru and another in Koppal. The other 29 districts had no private vaccination centres.

In Maharashtra, to fight the shortage of vaccines, the government has decided to procure them directly from manufacturers as per a report in The Times of India. The last time Maharashtra received Covishield supply was on January 16 and Covaxin’s last batch was received on February 3 making Maharashtra one among the many Indian states with negligible to nil Covid vaccine stock, as reported by the publication.

A Times of India report even added that the government hospitals in states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Telangana and Andhra have no availability of shots.

However, Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla asserted that "there is enough stock available from all manufacturers," adding that they have restarted manufacturing of Covishield.