COVID-19: Private hospitals barred from directly procuring vaccines; new guidelines out

As the vaccination drive in India continues to gain pace, the Centre has issued fresh guidelines for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines by private hospitals. From July 1 onwards, private hospitals can place vaccine orders only on the CoWIN portal and have been barred from directly procuring vaccines from manufacturers. This comes days after PM Modi announced that the private sector will be able to procure 25% of the total volume of available vaccines.

In pursuance of this, all private hospitals will have to register as a Private COVID Vaccination Centre (PCVC) on CoWIN. The Union government has also imposed a cap on the maximum number of doses a private hospital can order for any given month to balance limited supply and prevent wastage. The instructions read, "The likely monthly consumption shall be estimated by multiplying the daily average consumption during the week of the choice of the PCVC in the previous month by 30. The maximum limit will be twice this quantity". 

The state governments will aggregate the demand from PCVCs keeping the total quantum of doses available in a month for them. Moreover, hospitals joining the inoculation drive for the first time shall be allocated vaccines based on the number of beds available. PCVCs can place orders for Covishield or Covaxin in up to four instalments for which payment must be made within three days through electronic mode. Successful submission of the orders on the CoWIN portal shall be sufficient for the procurement process to kick in. 

COVID-19 vaccination in India

Apart from COVISHIELD and COVAXIN, the DCGI accepted the recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, paving way for the approval of Sputnik V and Moderna on April 12 and June 29 respectively. Moreover, the Union government declared that those vaccines that have been granted emergency approval for restricted use by USFDA, EMA, UK MHRA, PMDA Japan, or which are listed in WHO (Emergency Use Listing) will be granted emergency use approval in India. In a huge announcement on April 19, the Centre allowed the vaccination of all adults from May 1 onwards.

But, the vaccination drive was adversely affected since May 1 owing to a shortage of doses and the decentralized vaccine procurement policy. Addressing the nation on June 7, PM Modi rolled back this policy and announced that the Centre will procure 75% of the vaccine stock and distribute it to the states for free from June 21. Most importantly, this stock can now be used for all adults and not just those aged above 45. A total of 27,24,98,853 persons have been inoculated whereas 5,80,69,297 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too.

(With ANI inputs)