Hospitals out of vaccines, delays in second jabs a concern

Timely inoculation of vaccine beneficiaries has become a challenge as private hospitals continued to shut their vaccination centres due to the unavailability of doses

Timely inoculation of vaccine beneficiaries has become a challenge as private hospitals continued to shut their vaccination centres due to the unavailability of doses. While residents are concerned about getting their second vaccine dose, hospital managements said that vaccine manufacturers have put them on a long wait list and it may take around three to four months to get the required dosages.

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“Currently, hospitals are not getting any vaccine stock from manufacturers as they are obliged to provide doses to central and state governments. In all likelihood, vaccination for those between 18 to 44 years will be mostly carried out at government facilities. Private hospitals will come into the picture after three to four months. Besides, there has been no clarity on second dose inoculation of beneficiaries,” said Dr Nikhil Mishra, chief medical superintendent, Columbia Asia Hospital.

A senior health official, requesting anonymity, said, “Clearly, people who require second shot have been facing problems as private hospitals have run out of vaccine stock and are facing difficulties in direct procurement of doses from manufacturers.”

According to the district health department data, until May 3, over 178,219 people aged 45 to 59 years took their first dose, but only 13,843 of them have received the second shot. As many as 149,183 people above the age of 60 years have got their first shot, while 36,998 of them received the second shot.

Due to the limited supply of vaccine, session sites have decreased to 59 from 89 in the district. Until the first week of April, vaccination took place at 37 government health centres and 52 private hospitals.

As reported by HT on Monday, many big hospitals, including Artemis and W Pratiksha, shut their vaccination centres after failing to get a positive response from the manufacturers. Residents who visit the hospitals were directed to visit the government session sites to get their second doses.

Dr Devlina Chakravarty, managing director, Artemis Hospital, said, “The hospital inoculated 500 to 900 people every day. But due to unavailability of stock, second dose beneficiaries who have been directly reaching hospital every day are asked to go back.”

Earlier, private hospitals directly procured vaccines from the district health department, but with the start of inoculations for people aged 18 to 44, private facilities were directed to get the vaccines from manufacturers. Even the district health department has limited doses, with 13,000 doses currently in stock for second jab beneficiaries. Of these, nearly 4,110 doses were utilised on Tuesday at 30 government sites.

Vaccine beneficiaries are worried about the delays in taking the second dose.

Vineeta Mathur (60), a resident of Ridgewood Estate, said she has not been able to get the second shot of Covishield vaccine despite visiting many private and government health facilities over the last three days. “There are no slots available for the second shot at any private hospital in the city. Even after directly walking into a few big private hospitals, the staff clearly said they don’t have vaccine stock. At government facilities, only 100-150 tokens are being distributed in a day. The token distribution gets over before 9am.”

She said that the government vaccination centre at the Sector 31 polyclinic and other Urban Primary Health Centres have long queues, with no social distancing norms being followed. “At a time when the pandemic is at its peak, the vaccination process could have been streamlined, especially for the elderly. Visiting hospitals or standing in queues for hours makes us vulnerable to contract the coronavirus infection,” said Mathur.

Atul Gupta, a resident of Sector 43, who took the first dose of the vaccine along with his wife almost five weeks ago at W Pratiksha Hospital, is facing a similar dilemma. “The vaccination centre of the hospital was closed. We are not able to find any centre to get the second jab of Covaxin in Gurugram. Despite all efforts, there is no clarity on the vaccination process. Therefore, to avoid any further delay we have registered for a slot in one of the vaccination centres in South Delhi,” said Gupta.

Residents also complained of issues with booking slots on the Co-WIN platform. Hemant Kumar, a citizen, tweeted: “As a senior citizen the second shot has been cancelled thrice by CoWin without assigning any reason.”