The state of Andhra Pradesh ran out of COVID-19 vaccine stock after carrying out a massive vaccination drive on Wednesday and Thursday as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for ‘Tika Utsav’. On Wednesday, state health officials administered a record 6,28,961 vaccine doses across the state.
On Thursday, only 28,677 vaccines doses were administered, before the COVID Vaccination Centres (CVCs) were shut.
Vaccine stock had depleted in the state earlier as well, following which the Union government sent 6.40 lakh doses in two batches on Monday and Tuesday. On Thursday, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had directed the state Health and Family Welfare Department officials to continue their vaccination drive in order to complete the stipulated vaccination targets.
On Friday, CM Jagan wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking an additional 60 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine for the state, “to ensure that all the population above 45 years in my state are vaccinated for 1st dose in the next three weeks.” Thanking PM Modi for the recent supply of 6.4 lakh doses, Jagan said that Andhra Pradesh was able to vaccinate a record number of 6,28,961 persons on Wednesday, as part of the Tika Utsav. “This is the highest single day COVID vaccination numbers by any state in the country,” Jagan claimed.
Speaking to TNM, State Immunisation Officer (SIO) Srihari said, "We have requested for more vaccine stock for the coming days, Union Health Ministry would be disbursing around 5 lakh Covishield vaccine shots on Friday."
"With adequate enough staff on the ground, we have proven that the state can vaccinate 6.28 lakh people in a single day. As per directions from the Chief Minister, the vaccination drive in the state will take place at the same pace in the days to come."
The officer also said that vaccine shots are being distributed to different districts based on their "daily performance" and "requirement". As per the CoWIN dashboard, the state has managed to vaccinate 45.99 lakh people, of which 40 lakh people received their first doses and 5.94 lakh people received their second doses.
Chittoor district has administered the most number of vaccine doses at 3.89 lakh, followed by East Godavari which has also administered 3.89 lakh doses, while Krishna and Guntur districts have administered 3.54 lakh and 3.47 lakh doses respectively.