The Tamil Nadu government on Monday informed the Madras High Court that its COVID-19 vaccine stocks would last only for two more days. It has so far vaccinated only 87.7 lakh people, including 75.73 lakh in the age group of 45 and above and 11.97 lakh aged 18 to 44.
The court was also told that the State had sent a communication to the Centre seeking supply of adequate doses on a priority basis.
The submissions were made before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy at the hearing of a suo motu public interest litigation petition taken up by the court to monitor the fight against the pandemic.
Advocate-General R. Shunmugasundaram said the Centre had so far supplied 83.08 lakh doses for the 45 years-and-above category and 13.10 lakh doses for the 18-44 age group.
On the other hand, Additional Solicitor-General R. Sankaranarayanan said Tamil Nadu was in possession of 5,20,472 doses (3,23,830 doses of Covishield and 1,96,642 doses of Covaxin) as on Sunday. He said that since the start of vaccination, the Centre had supplied 95,61,620 doses (80,04,340 doses of Covishield and 15,57,280 doses of Covaxin) to the State, which had consumed 90,41,148 doses (76,80,510 doses of Covishield and 13,60,638 doses of Covaxin).
He also said that though only 13,22,400 doses had been allocated to Tamil Nadu free of cost (for vaccinating those aged above 45) for the month of May, the Centre had supplied 14,22,400 doses, including those of Covishield and Covaxin. Similarly, the State had been supplied with the entire monthly allocation of 11,18,530 doses of Covishield through direct procurement for vaccinating the 18-44 age group.
There was a shortage of 74,790 doses only with respect to Covaxin as the State had received 1,91,740 doses against the allocation of 2,66,530 doses, he said.
Further, explaining the proposed supply to the State in June, Mr. Sankaranarayanan said the Centre had allocated 7,48,210 doses (5,96,440 doses of Covishield and 1,51,770 doses of Covaxin) free of cost for the first fortnight and another 18,36,170 doses (15,58,740 doses of Covishield and 2,77,430 doses of Covaxin) for the second fortnight.
