Kolkata: Destination government units for second jabs

KOLKATA: People whose second doses are pending at private Covid vaccination centres (CVC) will have to head to government units. Each private centre has been tagged with one or two government centres where they can send their first dose recipients for the second jab when it is due. Private hospitals have started informing the recipients accordingly.
“We have the list of people who would have either got the second doses at one of our three AMRI units. Since the government has asked us to send them to their centres, our responsibility is to inform them where they should go for the second shot. We have started calling our beneficiaries up telling them about the centres tagged with us,” said Rupak Barua, group CEO of AMRI Hospitals.
Hospitals, however, said that a clearer communication from the government about the change in vaccination drive could have helped them organise it better for people whose second doses are due.
“Information like whether the beneficiaries need to book an appointment, number of people we can send in a day and also if we could send a representative from our hospital to the CVC tagged with us to assist our beneficiaries — these things would have helped us organise it better. But we will start intimating those who have received the first dose from us,” said Sudipta Mitra, CEO of Peerless Hospital.
RN Tagore Institute of Cardiac Sciences has decided to use both phone calls and WhatsApp blast to inform its beneficiaries. The hospital has been tagged with two CVCs — one for Covishield and the other for Covaxin.
“Even as we inform them about the two centres, we will also tell them that they have the option of choosing any of the 174 government CVCs where they can approach for the second dose depending on the convenience of the locality,” said R Venkatesh, regional director (East) of Narayana Health.
The private CVCs have not been getting any vaccine supply since May 1 from the government as they have been told to procure vaccines on their own. People whose second doses are due numbers between 3000 and 15,000 in each private centre.
“We have called up people whose second shot is due by May 28 asking where the Covaxin recipients should go and where the Covishield recipients can get their second dose. We are informing them in phases,” said Subhashis Datta, general manager (operations) at Ruby General Hospitals.
Meanwhile, the AMRI Hospitals expect to get some vials of Covaxin in the next couple of days. In such a case, the group has plans of using those for the second dose.