Doses of the Covishield vaccine (Express Photo) The Serum Institute of India (SII) has informed BMC that the batch of jabs used at the vaccination drive held in Hiranandani Heritage housing society in Kandivali was actually Covishield stock allotted to Gujarat and Union Territory (UT) Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
Most stock, based on the batch numbers, was allotted to Silvassa in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
“We have been informed orally by SII… we are awaiting written communication. The next step will be to inquire which hospitals were allocated jabs from this batch and whether they used the vials,” said Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani.
“We had sent SII details of batch numbers from vaccine certificates generated for Kandivali society residents,” he added.
BMC officials said it is possible the vaccine certificates were forged and the original ones belonged to the residents of Gujarat and the UT. Kakani said BMC could not seize the vials that were used for vaccination to check whether the batch numbers match with those on the CoWin-generated certificates.
Residents from Hiranandani Heritage had raised an alarm when they did not receive proper vaccine certificates and suffered side effects after a vaccination camp was held in their society on May 30. They complained that the certificates they received after several days had wrong date, time and hospital name.
BMC officials said they collected the provisional vaccine certificates from the society and many people who got vaccinated in a similar camp held at Aditya College of Architecture in Borivali. Based on the batch numbers mentioned in the certificates, they wrote to SII.
A senior BMC official said to assess whether the vaccines were genuine, those vaccinated in these camps may have to undergo antibody tests. Residents in Kandivali society received the jabs on May 30. It will take at least 28 days for the immune system to generate adequate antibody levels. By next week, they may be asked to undergo antibody tests. However, Kakani said a final decision is yet to be taken.
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