Limited stock of Covishield to be available at Patna’s 5 centres for booster jab

Many people, especially those scheduled to travel abroad, and eligible for the booster dose, were frantically enquiring about the availability of Covishield for the last one month.

PATNA: Limited stock of Covishield, a vaccine against Covid-19, will be available for jab after a gap of one month at five locations in Patna on Monday, said district immunisation officer Dr. SP Vinayak on Sunday.

Bihar has received 120 vials of Covishield, which will account for 1,200 doses. (HT Photo)

The vaccine will be available at Patna’s Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), New Gardiner Road Hospital (NGRH), Guru Gobind Singh Hospital at Patna City, Gardanibagh hospital and the sub-divisional hospital, Danapur.

“We have received 120 vials of Covishield, which will account for 1,200 doses. How long the stocks last will depend on the footfall of people coming to take the jab at the five hospitals, where we have distributed the vaccines,” said Dr. Vinayak.

Patna had 300 vials of Covaxin, equivalent to 3,000 doses.

The state capital had exhausted Covishield on December 21. The stock of Corbevax, another Covid-19 vaccine, for 12-14 years of children, and those eligible for booster dose, was exhausted in November, and have not been replenished yet.

Many people, especially those scheduled to travel abroad, and eligible for the booster dose, were frantically enquiring about the availability of Covishield for the last one month.

“I was getting up to 15 calls in a day, enquiring about the availability of Covishield initially. Most of the callers were scheduled to travel abroad and were desperate for the booster dose,” said Dr. Vinayak.

He, however, could not put a number to the people eligible for the Covishield booster shot.

Sources said most of the 38 districts in the state did not have any stock of Covishield.

The state did not share any data on the inventory of Covid-19 vaccines, including Covaxin, Corbevax, and Covishield, their availability in districts, vaccination coverage, and the number of people eligible for Covishield booster doses.

Efforts to reach Sanjay Kumar Singh, executive director of the State Health Society as also the state’s nodal officer for vaccination, and Bihar’s health secretary for the state data, proved futile as he did not respond to messages.

The state did not record any active cases of Covid-19 as of Saturday, according to a Covid-19 bulletin shared on the state health department’s Twitter handle.