Kolkata hospital defers vaccine drive over 'shortage'; govt says 'write to manufacturers'

With the third phase of the COVID-19 vaccination drive scheduled to begin today (May 1), the West Bengal government has said that the people belonging to the 18-44 years of age group will be administered the vaccine when the state receives doses. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led government said that the vaccination for those above 45 years of age will continue. 

Private Hospital: 'No vaccine doses to begin Phase III in Bengal'

Meanwhile, the CEO of Woodlands Hospital in Kolkata, Dr Rupali Basu, has said that her hospital is ready for inoculation of people between the 18-44 age group, but they don't have COVID-19 vaccine doses as of now to start the vaccination drive. Dr Rupali Basu further informed that she has written to vaccine manufacturers- Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech, but they won't be able to provide COVID-19 vaccine doses till June. 

Dr Rupali Basu told ANI,  "Phase III of COVID-19 vaccination drive is different from other phases, we have been asked by the government to write to the manufactures directly for the supply of vaccines. We have written to Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech and they said they won't be able to provide us vaccines till June. We are still in conversation with them. We don't have the vaccine with us but we are ready with staffing, vaccination centre, and process. The moment we get the vaccines, we will start the vaccination."

Stating that she is hopeful that the hospital will receive vaccines by May 5 to start vaccination of people between the age of 18 and 44, the CEO of a private hospital said that in West Bengal, the vaccination will not start untill May 5 as May 1 is a holiday, and May 2 is election results. She further said, "May 3 and 4 are also not vaccination days. We are still in conversation with manufacturers and I will be hoping that I will get vaccines by then."

COVID Vaccination for all above 18 

The Centre on April 19 liberalized the third phase of its COVID vaccination drive to include all aged 18 and above. In a bid to meet the need for vaccination, the Centre has asked the vaccine manufacturing companies to scale up their production with the help of International as well as national players and has allowed them to supply 50 per cent of the produced doses to state and private hospitals directly, which means now the States and the private hospitals do not have to go through the entire process, and can directly get it from the manufacturers at the price declared by them. At present, India has two vaccines- Covaxin and Covishield, and will soon have the Sputnik V in the race. Not only this, there are around five more vaccine candidates in the advanced clinical stages of development. 

COVID-19 situation in West Bengal

As India continues to reel under the unprecedented second wave of COVID-19, West Bengal has so far registered over 8,28,366 positive cases, out of which, 7,03,398 have successfully recovered and 11,344 have died. As per the latest reports from MoHFW, in the past 24 hours, 17,411 new cases, 13,932 fresh recoveries and 96 deaths have been reported. Currently, the total number of active cases in the state is 1,13,624.

(Image: ANI, PTI)