4 lakh doses arrive but hospitals, Kolkata Municipal Corporation clinics need more stock to sustain drive

KOLKATA: Even though the state government claimed it had received 25 lakh vaccine doses for July — to be used at government and Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC)-run vaccination centres — the civic body said the drive could slow down across its clinics this week owing to inadequate stock.
While KMC clinics will resume the drive on Tuesday after a two-day break, each centre won't be able to administer more than 100 doses due to the shortage, said civic officials. On Monday morning, the state had a stock of 9.4 lakh doses even as it received a consignment of 4 lakh more in the evening.

KMC health department had set a target of administering 15,000-20,000 shots from its 200 plus centres. Now, with an allocation of 100 shots per vaccination clinic, it is impossible for KMC to reach its goal. Half of the allocation (50 shots) will have to be reserved for recipients of second dose. The civic body now needs around 1 lakh doses to administer to second dose recipients who have been waiting for their turn for over a couple of weeks. KMC had suspended first doses for the past four days due to paucity of supply.
"We had expected to ramp up vaccination at our clinics to bring more recipients of second dose who are waiting for their turn. This number is increasing at a rapid pace but we are yet to receive fresh supplies,” said a KMC health department senior official. He added that the civic body may be forced to keep some of big centres shut till the supplies reach.
Private hospitals, too, are worried about their fast-depleting vaccines and most will run out of stock within the next three days to a week. None has received any vaccine since the new online procurement system came into effect on July 1.
Peerless Hospital has stopped administering the first dose and has restricted the drive to just second doses for the 45-plus age group. “We have been forced to ration since we have not received anything under the new online procurement system. Unless fresh stock arrives, we will exhaust all our reserves in 10 days,” said Peerless Hospital CEO Sudipta Mitra.
RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences that has sought 35000 doses is left with just 1,500 doses of Covishield that ‘may not last more than 2-3 days in the current scenario’. “We are awaiting fresh stocks since we are going to run out of Covishield this week. Around 100-200 doses of Sputnik, however, will continue to be administered daily for 10 days,” said RTIICS zonal head R Venkatesh.
AMRI Hospitals hopes to be able to continue vaccination with their existing stocks for another week. It has requisitioned 1.5 lakh doses for July that is yet to arrive. “We should be able to manage for barely another week,” said CEO Rupak Barua. AMRI is administering 1,200-1,500 doses a day at its three units apart from 1,800 doses at off-site camps. Fortis Hospital and ILS Hospitals have run out of stock and stopped the drive.