The government today rejected a media report which claims a shortage of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) across the country. Terming the report as ill-informed, the Union Health Ministry said, sufficient doses of over 70.18 lakh of PCV Vaccine are available with States and Union Territories. <br />''<br />''The   PCV  is to protect children from pneumonia.  The Ministry clarified that over three lakh doses of  PCV were available in Maharashtra till yesterday.  It added that the supplies against procurement of PCV for the year 2022-23 have also commenced to the States and UTs. Pneumonia is one of the major causes of child mortality and the Centre has taken proactive steps to effectively address this problem.<br />''<br />''The Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine was introduced by the centre in 2017 in a phased manner across the most affected five states of  Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Thereafter, the PCV under the Universal Immunization Programme was expanded throughout the country. It is now an integral part of the Universal Immunization Programme and is available free of cost to the entire birth cohort of 27.1 million. <br />