Blow to Covid vaccination as private facilities go off the list

Ruchir Kumar ruchirkumar@hindustantimes

Ruchir Kumar

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ruchirkumar@hindustantimes.com

PATNA: The government’s recent order stopping free supply of Covid-19 vaccines to private healthcare facilities and asking them to procure the vaccines directly has dealt a blow to the vaccination drive, forcing private facilities to pull out of the exercise.

Vaccination at all 44 private facilities in Patna has been shut since May 1, after the state government order, said Patna district immunisation officer Dr SP Vinayak. Against a peak of 3.75 inoculations in a single day in March, the state vaccinated 1,46,493 people on Tuesday, taking its total tally to 84,08,557.

The state health department had now asked private healthcare facilities interested in vaccination to register with the civil surgeon of the respective district. This despite the fact that many private centres were involved in the vaccination process between January 16 and April 30.

The Mahavir Vatsalya Hospital, which reached out to the Serum Institute of India (SII) to procure Covishield vaccines, was on Monday told to wait for another three to four months for the vaccines, said Dr Upendra Prasad Sinha, nodal officer for Covid-19 vaccination.

“The firm’s Mumbai office has told us to access the vaccines when it becomes available in the private market supply chain channels, which will take about 3-4 months from now,” added Dr Sinha.

“The medical representative of the Serum Institute has communicated the head of paediatrics department Dr Vijay Ranjan that our hospital is among the four private centres shortlisted by the firm for giving vaccines in Patna because of our bulk consumption of children vaccines for other diseases,” said Acharya Kishore Kunal, secretary of the Mahavir Mandir Temple Trust, which runs a series of hospitals in Bihar.

The hospital used to vaccinate around 100-150 people till April 30.

The government move has also dissuaded the Ruban Memorial Hospital in New Patliputra Colony.

“I am not keen to continue with the vaccination now that the government is not providing us the vaccines. Taking it as a social commitment, we provided our infrastructure and manpower to help the government in its vaccination drive. If the government expects us to buy the vaccines on our own and administer it to people, I don’t think we are interested in it because our hands are full in management of Covid-19 cases,” said Dr Satyajit Singh, managing director of the Ruban hospital, accredited to the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH).

The Ruban used to vaccinate an average 250-400 people per day, he claimed.

The Paras-HMRI Hospital, another private facility accredited to the NABH said it was clueless where to get the vaccines from.

“We are cluless at this point where to get the vaccines from. The state health department is also not clear about it. Our Gurgaon office wrote to the Serum Institute of India for the vaccine, but it has not responded yet. If the government provides us the Covid-19 vaccines, we are ready to administer them to people,” said Dr Syed Asif Rahman, medical superintendent, Paras-HMRI Hospital, Patna. The hospital, he said, used to administer an average 150-200 vaccine doses per day till April 30.

Meanwhile, the NTPC, a public sector undertaking, wrote to the Patna district magistrate (DM) Chandrashekhar Singh on Tuesday requesting him to establish Covid-19 vaccination centre at NTPC Barh to facilitate its employees take the jab.

“We have around 320 employees below 45 years of age at NTPC Barh who may please be vaccinated at utmost priority,” said Onkar Nath, deputy general manager (HR), in his letter to the Patna DM.

Earlier, on May 5, regional executive director East-1, Praveen Saxena wrote to the Bihar chief secretary, urging him to establish Covid-19 vaccination centre at various NTPC plants of Bihar to facilitate NTPC employees and its associates take the shot.

COVID WATCH

Bihar reported 10,920 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, taking the state’s cumulative tally to 6,12,570

It reported 72 deaths, taking the total death toll to 3,429. Patna contributed to 18 deaths on Tuesday, taking its total death count to 989

With 1,702 new infections, Patna topped Tuesday’s case tally, followed by Samastipur 782, Purnia 579, Begusarai 511, Muzaffarpur 452 and East Champaran 442

Bihar’s case recovery rate inched up to 82.77%, the best this month, after 13,852 were discharged from facilities after recovery, taking the total recovery to 5,07,041

Bihar’s test positivity ratio (TPR) dipped marginally to 10.2% on Monday. It was 10.3% on May 9, after recording a high of 16.1% on April 30. The state has imposed lockdown from May 5, when its TPR was 15.6%, to May 15

1,46,493 people were vaccinated on Tuesday, taking the total tally to 84,08,557