Jaipur, May 13 (IANS): Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma on Thursday said that the vaccination drive is being affected in the state due to lack of vaccines, and around 20 lakh doses are urgently required to carry on with it.

"The state government is constantly trying to contact the Central government and the vaccine supplying companies, but no positive response is being received from either of them. Eventually, the vaccination process is becoming a challenge because of the absence of vaccines despite the strong vaccination structure in the state," he said.

While the age group of 18 to 44 is highly affected, people over 45 years are also facing problems regarding availability of vaccine, Sharma said, adding that those above 45 years are 2.9 crore in number which means nearly 6 crore vaccine doses are required for this group.

"We have developed a structure of inoculating 7 lakh people per day and hence 80 per cent of people above 60 years have been vaccinated with the first dose and 33 per cent have been vaccinated with the second dose. Also 64.4 per cent of those coming in the 45 to 60 years of age group are vaccinated with the first dose while 27.4 per cent have been vaccinated with the second dose. The responsibility of this age group lies with the Central government but vaccines are not coming on a regular basis," he added.

The minister said that the number of people in 18-44 years of age is over 3 crore and hence, the SII has been asked to supply 3.75 crore doses but has sent 6.5 lakh doses only so far.

"Hence vaccination is going slow and the company has been reminded to send 8 lakh vaccines but there is no clarity on it," Sharma said, adding that the rising cases of corona can be stopped only with thorough vaccination and following Covid appropriate behaviour including putting mask and maintaining social distancing.