guwahati amid shortage assam on friday suspended administering the first dose of covaxin one of the two covid19 vaccines being administered in the state so that 150 lakh people who are due to get the second dose of the vaccine can be given their shot within the stipulated timestate health minister keshab mahanta on friday said the remaining stock of covaxin will be utilized only for the second dose as it has to be administered within 42 days many people across the state have not been able to get their second dose of covaxinfor the time being we are suspending the covaxin first dose there is a shortage of supply the state currently has 20000 covaxin doses including 15000 which were received today and about 50000 doses are expected to reach the state within a week our priority is to ensure that those who have already been administered the first dose are vaccinated with the second mahanta addressing a press conference here saidhe added if the supply increases later they will start administering the first dose those who are due to get the second dose should not panic as the gap between the two doses has been increased from 28 to 42 days and they will be administered the vaccine within the stipulated period the minister addedthe state has about 3 lakh doses of covishield and the vaccination for this will continue as per schedule he said the minister also said that assam has decided to give interestfree loans for three months to private hospitals who are interested in buying vaccines from the centrethe centre has decided to give 25 vaccines to private hospitals and we want this also to come to the state and as the government cannot buy it we have decided to give interestfree loans to private hospitals it is an attempt to bring in more vaccines to the state mahanta saidhe said that currently on an average 50000 people are being vaccinated daily but it will be increased to 70000 the vaccination process will be further intensified in six districts where positive cases and death rates are relatively high and these include kamrup metro dibrugarh tinsukia cachar nagaon and sonitpurthe minister further said that the vaccination process has been simplified for tea garden workers vagrants ascetics and others who do not have identity cardsthe minister said there are plans to vaccinate the elderly disabled and others suffering from certain ailments at their homes or places closer to their homes a total of 4233385 doses of vaccines have been administered in the state so far and this includes 3390477 first doses and 842908 second doses