As several states report a shortage of Covid-19 vaccines, an RTI has revealed that a huge wasted of vaccines has taken place since India began its vaccination drive on January 16.

Amongst the states responsible for the wastage of Doses, Tamil Nadu reported highest waste of vaccines with 12.10 per cent, followed by Haryana with 9.74% wastage, Punjab with 8.12%, Manipur with 7.8% and Telangana with 7.55% of wastage of Covid vaccines.

Out of 10 crore doses used by the states till April 11, over 44 lakh doses were wasted, the RTI (Right To Information) revealed.

States that wasted the least doses are West Bengal, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Goa, Daman and Diu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep. There was zero wastage of doses in these states, the RTI reply said.

Yesterday, top Finance Ministry sources said an advance of ₹ 4,500 crore had been given to vaccine-makers in India to boost the production of Covid-19 doses.

Reports said that Rs 3,000 crore has been given to the Serum Institute of India, which produces Covishield, and ₹ 1,500 crore has been assigned for Covaxin-maker Bharat Biotech, so they can scale up production of vaccines.

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In the past few days, many states have sent out vaccine SOS but the central government has asserted that it is more about mismanagement and waste.

The problem is of lack of better planning, not of vaccine doses shortage. The government has made available vaccine doses to states and UTs from time to time and to bigger states the government gives supply of four days at once and on fourth and fifth day it replenish the supply. For smaller states, at once the government supplies 7-8 days vaccine doses and on seventh or eighth day their supply is replenished, said Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan last week.

India registered over 2.59 lakh fresh Covid-19 infections and 1,761 Covid deaths in the last 24 hours. The total number of cases now stands at more than 1.53 crore.

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