NEW DELHI: India’s
vaccination drive is suffering due to lukewarm participation of
private hospitals which have been scheduling only around 10-15% of daily sessions for anti-Covid shots, even as the
Centre has allowed round-theclock sessions and walk-in recipients, official data shows.
Of more than 40,000 sites conducting vaccination on Saturday, only 5,507 were in private hospitals, whereas 34,510 sessions were in
government hospitals, highlighting the slow pace of expansion in the private sector. Official sources said government is looking into the issue and urging states to take up the matter at district level with private hospitals to understand if they have any issues. “We see there are hospitals on the Co-Win portal that have scheduled some sessions and then have stopped. We need to know why this is happening,” an official said.
Over 7.26 lakh vaccination sessions have been conducted since January 16 – when the immunisation drive was first rolled out — to inoculate more than 4.36 crore people till Saturday 7pm.
Currently, around 50,000 hospitals, including both public and private ones, have been enrolled in the drive. However, government hospitals, still catering to a majority of recipients, account for over 85% of sessions and have also administered significantly higher number of doses at around 70%, whereas less than 30% have been given at private hospitals.