About 1,41,622 doses of Covishield are lying with 47 private hospitals in Pune municipal limits with expiry dates on most of them lapsing next month.
Many of these hospitals have communicated to the Pune Municipal Corporation that they will not be able to utilise these doses before the expiry date. In other words, these doses will have to be destroyed.
Hospitals across the country are sitting with stocks of Covid vaccines that are facing expiry between now and next month, Gautam Khanna, Chairman, FICCI Health Services Committee, told BusinessLine. Their suggestion to the government is to relax the 60 years age cut-off for boosters or precautionary doses.
Recently, Tata Memorial Hospital Director, CS Pramesh, had pointed out that the other demography (besides the elderly) who need boosters, are the young imuno-compromised people. Those with cancer formed just part of this population. But people with comorbidities can get “severely disproportionate Covid”, if infected, he said, calling for boosters for them.
In Maharashtra, the State Health Department has asked district administrations across the State to submit a report on the utilisation of vaccines.
Anil Vinayak, Group Chief Operating Officer, Fortis Healthcare, said: “We continue to vaccinate with the approved vaccines across our centers in India. We have been ordering vaccines in a prudent manner while monitoring stocks and expiry dates, along with the manufacturers. This should help us to ensure that is no wastage of vaccines.”
But another hospital chain, with a presence across the country said, “one lot of vaccines had already been destroyed and another lot faces the same fate by the end of this month”.
Booster drive
Hospital representatives, who did not want to be named, added there was little direction from the health authorities on this issue. While small hospitals say that stocks worth a few lakhs face expiry, larger hospitals say their impact is bigger, as they had picked up stocks in the expectation that the government would undertake a booster drive.
Omicron affected many people and, as a result, several healthcare workers have not taken boosters, said a doctor. The general population has slowed down on their vaccination, as the infection and cases seems to ebb as well, said the head of a hospital.
Serum Institute, makers of Covishield (that has been widely administered in the country), did not comment on the development.
Meanwhile, the Centre has, in the past, countered reports on vaccine stocks facing expiry, saying that vaccines facing expiry were the first to get used. But hospital representatives point out it was “not nice” to destroy vaccine stocks, when other countries are falling short. Bringing in boosters for those who need it or want it will ensure most of it does not get destroyed, said a doctor.
Meanwhile, a private Covid vaccination centre in Satara, has filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court, seeking government’s intervention to save vaccines. The Maharashtra Health Department has not yet pronounced its stand on the vaccine stocks with hospitals.
(With inputs from Monika Yadav, Delhi)
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