With inequities in distribution and digital divide becoming major hurdles in getting COVID-19 vaccination across to people in Kerala, the government should take more pro-active steps to improve vaccine availability and the pace and coverage of inoculation, as this will help reduce mortality and morbidity due to COVID-19 in the State, public health experts have pointed out.
In this context, Kerala’s committee of experts on COVID-19 has written to the government, recommending that there should be better involvement of private sector hospitals in taking vaccination to people.
The committee has recommended that the government utilise the network of small and medium private hospitals in Kerala as vaccination sites and that the vaccines purchased by the government or provided by the Centre be distributed free of cost through these hospitals. This will make more vaccination sites available and take more vaccines to the rural areas, it is pointed out.
The panel also recommended that when distributing vaccines between districts, the government should allot more supplies to those where the sero-prevalence was found to be low, so that more people without prior exposure to the virus can be vaccinated.
Many major private hospitals in the State are running COVID-19 vaccination sessions after purchasing vaccines directly from manufacturers. But as these are paid services – Covishield is ₹780/dose and Covaxin ₹1,410/dose – not many have been able to afford them.
Urban-rural divide
Vaccination is now taking place mostly in public and major private health facilities in urban areas, while small private hospitals have been totally left out of the distribution network. This also created an urban-rural divide.
“Tamil Nadu is already purchasing vaccines and distributing it free of cost through private hospitals, while Kerala’s vaccination drive is totally dependent on the vaccine supply from the Centre. The public has contributed crores of rupees to the Chief Minister’s relief fund as part of the ‘vaccine challenge’. At a time when getting people vaccinated as fast as possible is the priority, the government should be utilising these funds to purchase vaccines from manufacturers,” pointed out a senior public health expert.
Small private hospitals had been facing a major difficulty in recent times because they had to place a minimum order – over 6,000 minimum doses of Covishield and 2,800 plus minimum doses of Covaxin — for vaccine manufacturers to supply to them directly.
Government supply network
However, the government has decided that these hospitals can be helped out by allowing them to place their orders through the government’s supply network.
In an order issued on Tuesday, the Kerala government has given sanction to the Kerala Medical Services Corporation Ltd. to purchase 20 lakh doses of vaccines in two lots from M/s Serum Institute of India for distribution through private hospitals. The amount for the same will be collected from private hospitals and remitted to the Chief Minister’s relief fund.