Jharkhand to receive 25 lakh vaccine doses from Centre in July for free drive

RANCHI: Jharkhand will receive nearly 25 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccines in July for the Centre’s universal free vaccination programme for all adults, due to begin from Monday.
The state, which has an adult population of over two crore, is likely to administer the doses to its eligible beneficiaries from the vaccine stocks which are currently available with it. Till Saturday evening, Jharkhand had 4.68 lakh doses for the beneficiaries aged above 45 years (which was provided by the Centre) and 2.7 lakh doses for beneficiaries aged between 18-44 years (which were purchased by the state directly from the manufacturers from May onwards).
“In addition to the 24.85 lakh vaccines being provided to the state government, Jharkhand’s private hospitals have been allotted 8.28 lakh doses if they are willing to take up paid vaccination of beneficiaries,” Siddharth Tripathy, the nodal officer for the health department’s IEC wing, said.
While on the spot registrations have been allowed across all age groups, beneficiaries can also produce their photograph bearing ration cards as identity proof. So far, Aadhaar cards, voter cards, driving licenses, PAN cards, passports, pension documents (with photographs), divyang identity cards and National Population Register smart cards were considered for registrations both offline and on the spot registrations at vaccination sites. “Ration cards have been included to facilitate the families who are living in rural areas to find the registrations hassle free,” Tripathy said.
As per the state health department’s dashboard around 47.5 lakh people had received their first doses till June 19 while 8.95 lakh people had taken both their doses. Covid-19 vaccination began in Jharkhand on January 16 this year.
“The vaccines have been allotted to Jharkhand based on its population ratio. Currently, we are inoculating close to one lakh people during the weekend drives and anywhere between 60-65,000 people during the weekdays,” Tripathy said. There are over 3,300 state-run vaccination sites across Jharkhand at present.
The health department said it will aid private hospitals who are willing to begin paid vaccination drives at their respective facilities. On June 14, the Jharkhand chapter of the Association of Healthcare Providers of India (AHPI) sought assistance in procurement of Covishield and Covaxin doses from the Centre.
AHPI Jharkhand president Jogesh Gambhir said private hospitals of the state are apprehensive of a lukewarm response to the vaccination in private facilities from June 21 onwards after the Centre provides free Covid-19 jabs to all age groups owing to high price and easy availability at the state-run inoculation centres. “Hospitals therefore are now hesitant to invest hefty amounts to procure vaccines. For instance, one must pay Rs 19 lakh in advance to procure 3,000 doses of Covishield,” Gambhir wrote in his letter.
“Therefore, it will be a good idea if the state procures on behalf of private hospitals and distributes it on a cost and daily advance payment basis. Some private hospitals are ready to be a part of the free government vaccination programme and offer their sites for free vaccination,” Gambhir said.