KOLKATA: With the pace of vaccination picking up in Bengal, and given the current stock, the state could be staring at a shortage of supply if replenishments don’t arrive in the next two days.
“Till Thursday morning, we had a stock of about 14 lakh doses comprising Covishield and Covaxin at different district vaccination stores. By the end of the day’s vaccination programme, we could be left with about 10 lakh doses, which could see us through for three days at the most. If we do not get fresh stock within these three days, we may run out of vaccine given the kind of numbers we have scaled up,” said a senior health official.
State health department officials requisitioned more vaccines during a meeting with the health ministry officials on Thursday.
“The stocks need to be replenished within the next two-three days,” an official said.
So far, Bengal has received 85,74,200 doses (74 lakh-plus Covishield and 11 lakh-plus Covaxin), the last consignment having arrived on April 2. Till Wednesday, 70,55,520 doses had been used to inoculate people, officially. But health officials said the actual number could be slightly higher due to data backlog in the Co-WIN system.
“A few days ago, Bengal was allotted a fresh consignment of 21 lakh doses of Covishield on paper. But this lot will not arrive before April 15, which is still about a week away,” said a source at Swasthya Bhawan.
At present, over 2.5 lakh doses are being administered daily across vaccination centres in the state. On Monday, a whopping 4.4 lakh people were inoculated, followed by 3.1 lakh the next day. State health department officials said they could have scaled up the number of recipients to 5 lakh a day if it were not for the state of the current vaccine stock.
“We have already flagged our concern that we may face a vaccine shortage if the stock does not get replenished in the next two-to-three days. We are hopeful of a stop-gap solution with temporary allotment,” said state family welfare officer Ashim Das Malakar.
Of the about 14 lakh doses left, only 15,000 doses of Covaxin are currently in the custody of the Bagbazar central vaccine depot, the rest having been sent to cold-chain points or district vaccine stores.
“In all likelihood, we might get a shipment by Friday or Saturday, but we have no idea about the quantity. The job does not end at receiving the consignment. It has to be brought to the Bagbazar depot to be sorted and sent to the different districts, which needs time. We hope to get a shipment by Friday,” said a source at the health department.