Jaipur, Apr 29 (IANS): Amid questions over whether the third step of the vaccination programme will start as scheduled from May 1 for the 18-44 year age group, Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma on Thursday said that the state needs around 7 crore doses of vaccines for this segment.

"The 18+ age group accounts for 3.25 crore people in Rajasthan and taking two doses in consideration, we shall require 7 crore doses. If we get these doses, we can vaccinate the young people of Rajasthan in accordance with the advice of our Prime Minister aiming at securing lives of our young generation," he said.

Sharma said that they had spoken to officials of the Pune-based Serum Institute to book 3.75 crore doses of its Covishield vaccine but were told that it will be fulfilling the Centre's orders till May 15.

"We have sufficient arrangement to store vaccines and a well-defined cold storage system. We have vaccinated a record 5.80 lakh people in one day and presently have developed a system to vaccinate 7 lakh people each day," the minister said.

Till April 27, 1,26,53,991 people have been vaccinated, but now there are no vaccines available in cold storage, he added.