Jab crisis: Rajasthan govt starts process to buy 1 lakh Sputnik V vaccines

JAIPUR: Facing a severe shortage of Covid vaccines, the state government has now decided to buy Sputnik V vaccines from Dr Reddy’s to scale up the inoculation drive and ensure people are vaccinated before the third wave emerges.
Eleven districts in the state could not administer even a single dose of vaccine due to shortage on Thursday. On Wednesday, eight districts did not vaccinate a single person. The state has received 5.4 lakh doses, but they are in the process of being distributed.
The state government had repeatedly written to the Centre urging them to increase the allocation from 65 lakh to 1.5 crore doses for July. Since 75 lakh doses alone are required to adminsiter second doses to beneficiaries, the government has said it would be difficult to give the first dose in July if they only get 65 lakh vaccines from the Centre.
“We are procuring 1 lakh doses of Sputnik V. The process has been initiated," said health secretary Siddharth Mahajan.
The state government is chalking out a plan on where to provide Sputnik V. It will be administered in two doses like Covaxin and Covishield. One dose of the vaccine will cost Rs 1,000 to the state government. The Russia-developed vaccine is now available at Jaipur National University (JNU) hospital in the city.
On Friday, the Centre is expected to supply 2 lakh doses. Health department officials said that they have received 2.41 crore doses of vaccines till now. Out of those, more than 2.44 lakh doses have been administered. This happens because while 11 doses are packed in each vial, they are counted as 10. The health department administered the vaccines carefully and prevented the extra dose from being wasted. Officials said that though 10% wastage is permitted, the department had prevented such wastage.
At JNU, around 200-250 people are getting vaccinated by Sputnik V daily. “Sometimes, full families with their friends and relatives come for vaccination in groups of 50-70 at a time," said Sandeep Bakshi, chancellor, JNU.
Besides, Fortis Hospital has also received some doses of Sputnik V. But they are using it to vaccinate in-house staff and not providing it for the public as of now. The hospital official said that they would do so when they get more doses.