A beneficiary gets a dose of Covid-19 vaccine in Pune. (Express Photo by Ashish Kale, File) Even though the Centre opened up the vaccination programme by stating that everyone above the age of 18 would be eligible for their third precautionary dose from Sunday, most large and small private hospitals are in no hurry to purchase the vaccine as they have a fair amount of stock and no takers.
Rajesh Bhushan, the Union health secretary, in the letter sent on April 9 to state additional chief secretaries and health secretaries, said that the national Covid-19 vaccination programme has successfully covered about 96 per cent of the population aged 15 years and above with at least one dose while 84 per cent of this population is now fully vaccinated in the country.
“Based on inputs received from domain knowledge experts, Government of lndia has decided that precaution dose of Covid-19 vaccination will be available to the ’18 +population at Private Covid Vaccination Centers (PCVCs) from April 10 on completion of nine months, i.e., 39 weeks/273 days from date of administration of second dose,” Bhushan wrote.
However, hospitals like Ruby Hall Clinic and Noble are reluctant to buy fresh stock as they already have vaccines worth Rs 10-15 lakh piled up with them. Ruby Hall Clinic’s CEO Bomi Bhote told The Indian Express, “We have 5,000-6,000 doses with us and hardly 10 people are coming in a day. Presently, we are not planning to buy fresh stock and will aim at finishing the existing lot first.”
Noble Hospital’s executive director Dr H K Sale said that they have over 1,000 doses, majority of which is Covaxin, with them. “No one is turning up and this is a big loss for our hospital as we have invested nearly Rs 2 lakh buying the vaccine. Barely ten people turn up,” he added. Dr Shilpa Viseed, the General Manager (Operations) at Jehangir hospital had a similar tale to tell. “We will only be ordering after we’ve exhausted our pending stock of 3,000 doses,” Shilpa added.
The policy decision for allowing the precautionary doses for citizens above 18 years should have been taken in February this year, says Dr Sanjay Patil, chairman of the hospital board of India — Pune chapter. “We have been collecting data from across our member hospitals and a majority of the vaccines have crossed the expiry date,” Dr Patil said, while adding that it is unlikely that hospitals would immediately purchase fresh stock.
According to the state health department, at least 92 per cent of the target population above 18, which comprises approximately 9.1 crore people, have got their first shot while 75 per cent have been fully vaccinated.
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