Not just Maharashtra, shortage of vaccines in Uttar Pradesh, too...


Not just Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh is, too, facing vaccine shortages with many private hospitals in Ghaziabad complaining of absence of doses. In eastern UP a majority of government-approved vaccination centres in Varanasi have had to shut down.

 


The state government has, however, said the supply is being internally managed with vaccines from low-demand centres being diverted to high-demand ones.

Speaking to ET, many private hospitals in Ghaziabad said they have been out of vaccines for the last 3-4 days.
Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope had on Thursday made a statement hinting at an apparent bias by the Centre, saying states like UP, Gujarat, Haryana — with much lesser cases — have been getting many more vaccines whereas Maharashtra, reporting more than 50,000 cases every day, got only 7.5 lakh doses on Thursday.


AGRA:-Shortage of COVID-19 vaccines at several vaccination centres in Agra district in Uttar Pradesh forced people to return home without a jab on Saturday.

The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Agra said the vaccination drive would resume on Monday as 15,000 doses are expected to arrive by Sunday.

There are about 199 health centres in Agra district where the vaccination drive is going on.

Dr Jitendra Lawania, the head of Community Health Centre (CHC) at Achhnera, said, "Due to unavailability of COVID-19 vaccines at the centre, the vaccination drive was affected. We are expecting to resume the drive by Monday."

The Medical Officer at Urban Primary Health Centre in Vijay Nagar Colony in Agra also said vaccines were unavailable at the centre.

A resident of Keetham village claimed that he went to the vaccination centre in Achhnera along with his 65-year-old father, but had to return home without the jab due to unavailability of vaccines.

The state on Saturday reported 120 deaths, its largest one-day toll from the pandemic pushing the fatality count to 9,703, while 27,357 fresh COVID-19 cases raised the infection tally to 8,21,054, according to an official statement

.Lucknow accounted for 5,913 of the fresh COVID-19 cases, Allahabad 1977, Kanpur 1826 and Varanasi 1,664, the UP government said in a statement issued here.

So far, 6,41,292 COVID-19 patients have recovered from the disease in the state, it said.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stands at 1,70,059 in Uttar Pradesh, the statement added.

In the past 24 hours, over 2.15 lakh samples have been tested for COVID-19 in UP, while so far more than 3.80 crore samples have been tested in the state,it said.

meanwhile, chairing a review meeting virtually, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said every hospital should have an oxygen backup of 36 hours.

He said in order to improve medical oxygen supply in the state, 10 new oxygen plants will be established, and the DRDO is extending help in this regard.

"For the establishment of an oxygen plant, the plot of land should be identified today itself, and work should begin on war-footing," the chief minister said.

Uttar Pradesh Health minister and Medical Education minister have been asked to continuously monitor this, Adityanath said.

The Chief Minister said the HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) has proposed to set up a dedicated COVID hospital in Lucknow using its CSR fund.

He directed the health department to coordinate with the HAL.

Meanwhile, the popular Dwarkadhish Temple in Mathura has been closed to devotees for a week amid a surge in coronavirus cases.

An office-bearer of the temple said it will remain closed to people till April 25.

He, however, added that daily rituals will be carried out in the temple in the absence of devotees.

A procession slated for Sunday as part of the "Yamuna Chhath" celebrations has been cancelled, an official said.

The ancient Radha Damodar Temple in Vrindavan has also been closed for seven days till April 25.

Uttar Pradesh on Saturday reported 120 deaths, its largest one-day toll from the pandemic pushing the fatality count to 9,703, while 27,357 fresh COVID-19 cases raised the infection tally to 8,21,054, according to an official statement.