UP has sought 5 crore doses of Covid vaccines per month but is getting around 8 lakh doses a day
The Uttar Pradesh government has sought five crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines per month but is getting around seven to eight lakh doses per day, state Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh said on Thursday.
He also said that so far 5.9 per cent of the total eligible beneficiaries in the state have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Replying to a question of Samajwadi Party member Shatrudra Prakash, Mr Singh said in the legislative council that till Aug 3, 32 per cent of the total population of adult citizens in the state was given the first dose of Covid vaccine and 5.9 per cent of the population has received both doses.
He said Covid vaccination in the state was being done through the vaccines being provided by the Central Government.
"Till August 11, 5.55 crore vaccine doses were administered," he said.
Mr Prakash asked the minister how many doses of vaccine the Uttar Pradesh government had asked for from the Centre and how many the Centre has been given so far.
In his reply, the minister said, "We have demanded five crore doses per month. We are getting hardly seven-eight lakhs per day. Sometimes we get five lakhs also. Demanding is a different thing but whatever the production is through two companies, we are getting accordingly.Centre has given more than six crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine so far on our demand."
Going by the figures given by the minister, the state is only getting half of what it has demanded per month.
The Samajwadi Party member requested the Chair to refer the matter to the reference committee as the minister could not answer him.
Leader of the House and Deputy Chief Minister Dr Dinesh Sharma said, "Vaccine is given in a certain proportion to all the states. This was decided in the meeting of chief ministers. Vaccine supplies are set to increase in Uttar Pradesh in September. The government is also going to announce the programme of how the vaccine will be administered in the state according to its availability."
Samajwadi Party MLC Naresh Uttam, who was in the chair, however, referred the matter to the reference committee.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)