4 lakh Covishield doses set to land in Kolkata today – Times of India

Kolkata News

KOLKATA: Vaccination resumed at most private hospitals following a lull due to short supply on Saturday. A fresh consignment of Covishield — set to arrive in Kolkata on Monday evening — is expected to bring some relief from the current crisis over depleting stock. On Sunday, while some private hospitals received their normal quota of vials, others continued with what was in stock. Most Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) centres, however, remained shut due to lack of supply.
A GoAir flight from Pune carrying 34 cases of Covishield with 40,000 vials — or 4 lakh doses — will touch down in Kolkata at 4.50pm on Monday. However, with the drive requiring 1.5 lakh-2 lakh doses a day, the stock will last barely two-three days. There are no reports yet of further replenishment.
The city has so far received 18 consignments of Covid vaccines — 13 were Covishield from Pune and the rest were Covaxin from Hyderabad. Altogether, 1,022 packages have reached the city. Of these, there were 826 boxes of Covishield and 196 boxes of Covaxin.
With the supply of Covidshield remaining low, most hospitals received Covaxin vials. At AMRI Hospitals, 348 recipients were vaccinated at two of its centres — Dhakuria and Mukundapur— but the Salt Lake unit couldn’t inoculate any due to unavailability of vaccine since Saturday.
At AMRI Dhakuria, 193 people were vaccinated on Sunday, including 17 senior citizens and 38 from the 45-59 age group who took Covishield. Another 138 recipients opted for Covaxin, of which 88 were senior citizens and 50 were from the 45-59 age group. At the Mukundapur unit, 155 received vaccination, including 66 senior citizens and 87 from the 45-59 age group, apart from two healthcare workers who received their second dose. All of them took Covishield.
A crowd had built up at AMRI Salt Lake even though the hospital announced that vaccines will not be administered on Sunday. “Since the Co-WIN portal accepted registrations for the hospital on Sunday, many had turned up,” said AMRI CEO Rupak Barua.
The KMC’s vaccination drive was hit for the third consecutive day by non-availability of doses. “Of the 80 urban primary health centres that are vaccinating people across the city, we could open just a few which had stock,” a civic official said.
RTIICS inoculated 213 recipients. “We are thankful to the health department for the supply of vaccines on Sunday. The recipient number was almost three times that of last Sunday,” said RTIICS zonal head R Venkatesh. The hospital also vaccinated 30 members of an old-age home (Alo Disha) and Missionaries of Charity.
Peerless Hospital vaccinated 169 recipients.
KMC centres that opened witnessed long queues. At the Bansdroni clinic, the registration counter was shut after an hour of opening and registering 100 people. Mitali Chatterjee, a homemaker from Brahmapur, said she had spent over an hour in the queue, but could not get herself registered.
“We were to keep all our centres open even on weekends and holidays in April. But we can’t due to non-availability of vaccines,” a KMC official said.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/4-lakh-covishield-doses-set-to-land-in-city-today/articleshow/82021366.cms