Each Pune hospital to administer specific vaccine dose, Covishield or Covaxin, not both

PUNE With the Pune municipal corporation (PMC) currently holding a stock of Covaxin doses for the first time since the Covid vaccine drive began, private hospitals in the city have asked to be allowed to administer both, Covishield and Covaxin

PUNE With the Pune municipal corporation (PMC) currently holding a stock of Covaxin doses for the first time since the Covid vaccine drive began, private hospitals in the city have asked to be allowed to administer both, Covishield and Covaxin.

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However, PMC has decided to allow only one vaccine to be administered at a hospital, to avoid any confusion.

The district administration got one lakh additional doses of both, Covishield and Covaxin, which will be distributed to PMC, PCMC and Pune rural.

Dr Manisha Naik, assistant medical officer in charge of the vaccination drive at private hospitals, said, “We are creating session sites for Covaxin at the 41 private hospitals. We have also asked the private hospitals to ensure that they have 100 or more doses of Covishield, to continue vaccinating on Tuesday. Those hospitals that do not have enough Covishield doses should buy Covaxin doses and not continue with Covishield.

“We are in fact getting requests from multiple hospitals to allow the option to use both the vaccines, however, this could lead to confusion during vaccination,” she added.

Although both the vaccines have proven their efficacy against the Covid-19 virus, the government is promoting Covaxin, an indigenously developed vaccine, by NIV and Bharat Biotech.

Covishield has been developed by Oxford University and is being mass produced by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII).

On March 11, the Drug Comptroller and General of India (DCGI), declared in a press conference that Covaxin, which was earlier approved in its “clinical trial mode”, would now be for “regular” emergency use. This decision came after Bharat Biotech published the phase three clinical trials which showed its efficacy and significant immunogenicity against the rapidly emerging variants. Following the announcement the government increased its procurement of Covaxin.

On Monday, the district administration received one lakh doses – 50K of Covishield and 50K of Covaxin.

Of the 50K doses of Covishield, 20K will be with PMC, 10K with PCMC and 20K with rural Pune. Of the 50K Covaxin doses, PMC will get 25K, PCMC 10K, and Pune rural 15K.

Rural Pune will allow both the vaccines to be administered at hospitals in distant locations.

Ayush Prasad, chief executive officer, Zilla Parishad said, “In rural areas we would prioritise Covishield for the second dose, and Covaxin as the first dose from here onwards. Each hospital will get both the doses are per their requirement.”