Assam Needs 75 Lakh Doses Per Month To Vaccinate Population By December

Assam needs at least 75 lakh doses of anti-Covid vaccines every month to inoculate all eligible adults by December this year.

Assam Health Minister Keshab Mahanta said this while replying to a query raised by Leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia during Question Hour of the Budget Session last Thursday.

According to the health department sources, Assam has been receiving an average of 25 lakh doses per month, at least 50 lakhs short than the required figure, since the Centre's revamped vaccine drive was launched on June 21. Before that, states had been procuring vaccines for those aged between 18-45 years on their own.

Assam has so far administered 86,38,873 doses as of July 16.

In his reply in the Assembly, Mr Mahanta said that Assam requires 4.62 crore doses of vaccines to inoculate its entire eligible population with both doses of vaccines - which means the state has so far achieved only 18 percent of its target.

Vaccination for health and frontline workers in Assam had begun in mid-January along with the rest of the country. For the 18-45 group, vaccination began on May 1. It was sped up from June 21, when the state government promised to vaccinate three lakh people every day.

The vaccination drive, however, hit a snag soon after a few days due to the shortage of doses

Currently, Assam has 2 lakh doses and it is in the process of procuring 3,89,678 more doses, Mr Mahanta said in his reply.