Jaipur, May 13 (PTI) Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma on Thursday said COVID-19 vaccination in the state is being affected due to the shortage of doses.

He said the state government had placed an order for about 3.75 crore doses with the Serum Institute of India (SII) but had only received 6.75 lakh in the first 12 days of the month.

Sharma said Rajasthan needs 20 lakh doses for immediate immunisation.

Vaccination of people in the 18-44 age group and those above 45 years is being affected due to the shortage of doses, he said.

About 2.09 crore people in the state are above 45 years. Accordingly, more than 4 crore doses are required. If there is 10 per cent vaccine wastage, then about 4.5 crore doses are needed for this age group, he said.

However, due to the erratic supply of vaccines, the health minister said, only 1.45 crore people across age groups have been inoculated in the state. This number includes both first and second doses.

Sharma said Rajasthan has developed the capacity to administer up to seven lakh vaccines per day. As a result, 80 per cent of the people above 60 years have been given the first dose and about 33 per cent have been given the second dose. In the 45-60 age group, 64.4 per cent of the people have been given the first dose and 27.4 per cent have been given the second dose.

The Centre is fully responsible for the vaccination of people over 45 years. However, the vaccine supply is not being expedited even for this age group, he alleged.

Sharma said there are more than 3 crore people in the 18-44 age group in the state. Therefore, an order for about 3.75 crore doses has been placed with the SII.

In the first 12 days of May, only 6.5 lakh vaccine doses were received from the SII. Due to this, the pace of vaccination is slow at most of the vaccination sites in the state, he said.

The health department has again spoken to the company officials for the delivery of more than 8 lakh doses but the situation is not clear so far, he added.

Sharma said that Bharat Biotech has also been approached by the government but it is also unable to supply vaccine doses.

The minister also expressed concern over the rising number of black fungus cases among COVID-19 patients recovering from the disease.

Sharma said the state government is cautious about it and instructions have been issued for the purchase of injections used for the treatment of the infection.

The black fungus infection, also known as mucormycosis, is caused by a fungus called mucor.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)