Jharkhand Facing Acute Shortage of Covid-19 Vaccines, Says CM Hemant Soren

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Thursday said the state is facing an acute shortage of Covid-19 vaccines and other medical requirements to fight coronavirus pandemic.

In an interview to CNN-News18, he said, “We need 12 lakh vaccine doses for 18+ per month, but we got only 1.5 lakh vaccines. For 45+, we need 15 lakh vaccines per month, but we are getting only 6 lakh vaccines. When the whole country is going through this pandemic, states governments are dependent on the Centre for everything. When you (the Centre) will not help us, where will we put our grievances?”

“We have limited resources. Today, we have 20,000 oxygen beds in Jharkhand,” he added.

On being asked about his tweets on Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s monthly radio programme ‘Mann Ki Baat’, the Chief Minister said, “You (Modi) don’t listen to our problems, only tell your own problems and solutions, with whom should we share our grievances?”

The Chief Minister also accused the Centre of showing no transparency in vaccine allocation to states.

Alleging that the inoculation drive was launched “without preparedness”, the CM told PTI that things have become complicated. Soren urged corporates functioning in the state to bear the cost of vaccination of the 18-44 age group communities in their vicinity under CSR (corporate social responsibility).

“It’s need of the hour that the government and the corporate sector come together in the interest of public health. Therefore, I appeal to all the companies operational in Jharkhand to ensure awareness and bear the cost of vaccination of the communities, especially within the age-group of 18-44 years, residing within their CSR operational area. “This will ensure that all the eligible clients are vaccinated at the earliest,” he said.

Earlier, blaming organisations authorised by the centre for not making available vaccines, Jharkhand had put off the 18 plus anti-Covid jab from May 1 and launched the same on May 14. Jharkhand is also badly hit by the second wave of the deadly virus.

The state has so far recorded 4,910 Covid-19 related fatalities. On Wednesday, the state had slammed the centre over vaccine wastage, saying it is wrong to project that the vaccine wastage proportion is as high as 37.3 per cent in the state whereas the fact remains that it is much below the national average and currently stands at 4.65 per cent.

The Jharkhand government retort came a day after the centre said despite urging states repeatedly to keep vaccine wastage below 1 per cent, many states such as Jharkhand (37.3 per cent) were reporting much higher wastage than the national average (6.3 per cent).

(with inputs from PTI)

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