PUNE: Hospitals within Pune Municipal Corporation limits are reporting a shortage of the Covishield vaccine.
District officials said the PMC’s low reserves could impact the vaccination drive in Pune city. Pune rural and the PCMC still have sufficient quantities of Covishield.
On Thursday, the PMC had just 15 vials (or 150 doses) of Covishield left at its Narayan Peth vaccine store, after 32,040 doses were distributed to hospitals recently. Also on Thursday, nearly 16,378 beneficiaries were given Covishield shots in PMC areas.
“This is insufficient reserve for the nearly 180 sites in PMC limits. More Covishield doses were expected on Thursday, but they did not arrive,” a PMC official said.
Officials overseeing vaccine supply said a fresh batch of Covishield is likely to land on Monday.
The PMC’s Narayan Peth vaccine store holds the stock for Pune city. It sends out shots to 55 cold chain points, from where they are distributed to Pune city hospitals.
An official from the district health department said, “The PMC had about 40,774 doses until Wednesday night, of both Covishield and Covaxin. Nearly 6,440 doses were Covishield and 34,334 were Covaxin. There is now seeing some shortage of Covishield, which could slow down the vaccination drive in Pune city. The next lot of Covishield is only expected to arrive on Monday."
Another official said the focus, during the next few days, will be on providing second doses to Covaxin beneficiaries. Covaxin first doses were given to numerous people in Pune from March 13.
“If there’s a Covishield crunch in PMC areas, Covaxin could be given as the first dose to many,” the official said. The district on Thursday received nearly 17,000 doses of Covaxin, with Pune rural allocated 12,000 doses, PMC getting 2,000 doses and the PCMC receiving 3,000 doses.
“Pune district had received two lots of Covishield recently: 1.1 lakh on Saturday and 1.6 lakh on Monday. But the district has been vaccinating about 50,000 people every day. That’s why the doses are finishing up fast,” the official said.