KOLKATA: With the Centre announcing vaccination for health workers, the 15-18 age group and for senior citizens with co-morbidities, private hospitals in Kolkata are scurrying to bolster their stocks ahead of January 3 when the drive begins for the youngest segment so far.
Most had stopped acquiring vaccines since November when attendance had dropped to just a handful of second dose recipients. With the queues set to lengthen again, hospitals are back to the drawing board, chalking out a new strategy, employing additional personnel and ordering fresh stocks.
At RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences (RTIICS), stock of Covidshield is down to 10,000 doses. “Out of this, we need around 6,000 doses of booster shots for our healthcare workers across all our units in the city. We plan to procure another 5,000 doses of Covishield for booster doses of frontline workers, senior citizens and for people who have not taken their second doses yet. For children between 15-18 years, we plan to order 5,000 doses of Covaxin,” said RTIICS zonal head R Venkatesh.
He added that the hospital will wait for the guidelines from state government on further details in terms of the modalities of administering the vaccines as per the recent announcement.
Peerless Hospital has a stock of 12,200 doses of Covishield and just 390 doses of Covaxin. “We plan to acquire both and will order once we finalize our requirement. A meeting is due on Monday after which we will arrive at the exact numbers. But we will acquire enough to last at least for all the groups,” said Peerless Hospital CEO Sudipta Mitra.
He added that hospitals were still waiting for more clarity on the modalities. It’s still not clear if only Covaxin can be administered to the 15-18 age group, he said. Most private hospitals are running low on Covaxin doses since it has had a low demand.
The vaccination team of Belle Vue Clinic will meet on Monday to chalk out the volume of fresh orders to be placed. The hospital has run out of Covaxin. “We will place an order as soon as the portal opens. We now have a stock of 6,800 Covishield doses, out of which 2,000 will be used for our doctors and health workers and the remaining 4,800 for the 60-plus recipients. We will place an order for 10,000 Covaxin doses for the 15-18 group,” said CEO P Tondon.
Medica Superspecialty Hospital is left with several lakh doses of Covishield and a few thousand doses of Covaxin. “So, we will not require fresh stocks immediately. But since the crowd will be back, we are making arrangements to deploy enough personnel at the vaccination counters and guide and counsel the recipients,” said chairperson Alok Roy.
A strategy for the next phase of vaccination will be decided in a meeting at AMRI Hospitals on Monday. AMRI is now left with 8,000 Covishield doses and 3,500 Covaxin doses.
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