Apollo Hospitals has offered to share around five lakh doses of Covaxin from its stock to the Tamil Nadu government. The offer comes at a time when the State is facing an acute shortage of the Bharat Biotech-manufactured vaccine. According to a report in The Hindu as many as 3.94 lakh people in Tamil Nadu have missed their second dose of Covaxin within the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) advised window of 4-6 weeks as of August 15.

Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian, while launching the Institute of Hernia Surgery and Abdominal Wall Reconstruction at Apollo Hospitals on Friday, urged corporates to come forward and procure those vaccines from Apollo Hospitals using their CSR fund and help the government hospitals replenish their stocks. Suneeta Reddy, MD, Apollo Hospitals Group was present.

‘Lukewarm response’

Apollo Hospitals’ offer also comes at a time when vaccination at private hospitals is receiving a lukewarm response amid a sharp drop in number of fresh Covid cases across the country.

Though 25 per cent of the vaccines are reserved for private hospitals, their share in vaccinations have been much lower at just 10 per cent or less with people preferring to get their jabs at Government centres for free.

K Hari Prasad – President, Hospitals Division, Apollo Hospitals also alluded to this trend during Q1 FY22 earnings call last week. From one lakh vaccinations per day, the number has currently fallen to 25,000-30,000 for the hospital chain due to multiple reasons, he had said. Apollo Hospitals’ CFO A Krishnan had then said that the hospital chain had ₹150 crore of vaccine inventory as of June 2021.