High demand for Sputnik V vaccine at Medanta

Sputnik V, Russia’s vaccine against coronavirus, which the Jai Prabha Medanta hospital began administering to beneficiaries last week, are flying off the shelves fast

Sputnik V, Russia’s vaccine against coronavirus, which the Jai Prabha Medanta hospital began administering to beneficiaries last week, are flying off the shelves fast.

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The hospital, which became the first health facility in the state to get the Russian vaccine through private channel, received limited supplies of 600 doses last week. Given its high demand and limited availability, the hospital has restricted vaccination slots through the CoWIN portal.

“We are insisting on pre-registration and pre-booking of slots through the CoWIN portal for the Sputnik jab after we began administering it to beneficiaries on June 25,” said Dr Ravi Shankar Singh, associate medical director of the hospital.

The newly built hospital has so far administered 350 doses to beneficiaries during the last four days, he added.

“We have requested our Gurgaon head office for 2,000 more doses of the vaccine. We are yet to get a confirmation about the arrival of new stocks,” said Dr Singh.

The Sputnik V vaccine efficacy was around 91.6% in India. However, the Russian Direct Investment Fund on Tuesday announced that the efficacy of its Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V in the United Arab Emirates was 97.8% among over 81,000 people.

Given the high efficacy of the Russian vaccine against Covid-19, the hospital, said sources, was receiving requests from ministers, legislators and senior government officers for administering jabs among their friends and relatives.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had inaugurated the super-specialty hospital on September 18 last year. Though it commenced outdoor patient department services soon after its inauguration, the hospital is yet to become fully functional. It expects to begin indoor patient department services in August. As per the agreement with the state government, the hospital will offer around 25% beds to poor patients.