KOLKATA: Eight lakh Covaxin doses are due in the state’s vaccine account for July. State health officials said despite having given two dates for arrival of the Bharat Biotech-manufactured vaccine in Kolkata this week, the consignments failed to turn up. Now, with the Covaxin crisis hitting KMC vaccination centres, the government hospital CVCs, too, have been forced to ration doses.
According Swathya Bhawan sources, the state currently needs about 2.5 lakh Covaxin doses just for the second jab.
“Around 2.5 lakh who had taken the first dose of Covaxin are due for the second one. We need to administer them at the earliest,” said an official.
The state has received around 34 lakh doses of Covaxin since the beginning of the inoculation drive. “We were supposed to get Covaxin consignments on June 21 and on June 23, but they did not arrive. We have been given July 26 as the next schedule. If the delivery does not fail this time, we should be able to overcome the crisis to a certain degree,” said Ashim Das Malakar, state family welfare officer.
The state on Saturday had only about 1 lakh Covaxin doses, leading to many CVCs not getting any dose or getting a limited number.
“We are managing to offer Covaxin to about 50 people a day out of 1,500 doses,” said a source at SSKM Hospital.
Bengal was supposed to get 75 lakh vaccine doses in July. So far, the state has received 54 lakh, including 12 lakh Covishield doses, on Friday.
“We have the capacity for more than one-and-a-half crore doses a month. The only constraint is an inadequate supply,” said director health services Ajay Chakraborty.
“For Covaxin, most people are coming for the second dose while the number of those asking it for the first dose is low. So we can offer the jab to both categories easily,” said Peerless Hospital CEO Sudipta Mitra.
