KOCHI: To ensure that the Covid vaccine stock with the Kerala Medical Services Corporation Ltd (KMSCL) is used at the earliest, the district administration as part of ‘Ernakulam Sponsor a Jab Programme’ has now decided to rope in private hospitals.
As part of the initiative, KMSCL will provide vaccines to interested private hospitals free of cost and they in turn will vaccinate the group for whom sponsors have been identified. The additional service charge of Rs 150 per patient that is presently charged by private hospitals will be reimbursed through KMSCL.
“The idea is to vaccinate majority of the people at the earliest. The vaccines under the programme will be given based on sponsors. In Ernakulam, the administration has got CSR funds for the same,” said an official at KMSCL.
In the district, 100% of the eligible population have been given the first dose and 46 % have received the second dose.
The state had through KMSCL bought 10 lakh doses of vaccines to be sold to private hospitals using the money raised through ‘vaccine challenge’. However, by then the big private hospitals had brought vaccines on their own and smaller ones were not keen on offering paid vaccinations as there were few takers for the vaccine in the private hospitals as vaccines were available for free in government hospitals.
While Covishield’s shelf life is nine months from its manufacture date and that of Covaxin is six months. Government announced that KMSCL had brought these vaccines in August.
Individuals, clubs, organizations, banks, offices, companies and shops can sponsor vaccines. The beneficiaries may include but not limited to underprivileged people in the society, guest workers and people from the unorganized labour sector.
