Mandaviya on vaccine shortage charge: states informed in advance, 'useless statements being made'

Amid complains by some states about shortage of Covid-19 vaccines, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday said "useless"' statements are being made only to create panic among the people.

Mandaviya asserted that states know very well when and in what quantity they will get the doses, adding that the Centre has informed states about the allocation of doses in advance.

He said the Centre had informed the states on June 19 about how many doses of the vaccine would be made available to them in July, he said.

In a series of tweets, Mandaviya said the availability of vaccines can be better understood by an "actual analysis of the facts".

To enable vaccination through government and private hospitals, Mandaviya said, 11.46 crore vaccine doses were made available to the state governments and union territories in June and this availability has been increased to 13.50 crore in July.