“The 1 lakh Covaxin doses which arrived on Sunday was procured directly by the Bengal government from the manufacturers. We will be getting more vaccines on Monday — a portion of which will be Bengal’s own procurement and a portion from the government of India channel,” said state family welfare officer Ashim Das Malakar.
According to sources in the state health department, 35,000 vials of Covishield purchased directly from Serum Institute of India by the state government will be shipped from Pune on Monday and will land in Kolkata airport in the afternoon. Along with this, another consignment of 39,530 vials of Covishield from the government of India channel will arrive on the same aircraft.
“There is a growing demand for vaccines from people in the 18-44 age bracket. We have started procuring vaccine for this priority group and should be able to launch the phase-III drive soon,” said a health department source.
Officials said the Bengal government is in the process of procuring more vaccines to ensure steady supply so that the phase-III drive does not come to an abrupt halt due to non-availability of supply.
In a communication in the third week of May, the central government had told the state that the vaccine supplied from the Centre should be utilized only for vaccinating those in the 45-plus age group. The Centre had added that the state could procure vaccine for the rest on its own.
“Because of the supply crisis, I feel we could sub-categorize this 18-44 group into people who need it the most and those who don’t. For example, people who need to go out regularly for work and economic activities, and essential services, like media persons, hawkers or public transport vehicle drivers, could be given priority,” said community medicine specialist Sanjib Bandyopadhyay of ID Hospital.
The supply crisis has retarded the inoculation drive that had picked up speed where close to 4 lakh doses had been administered on several days through March and the early part of April, and above 3,000 sessions were conducted in a day. But as the supply kept dropping, the government scaled down its drive. For several weeks now, the number of daily vaccination sessions has remained around 1,500 on an average.
“On Sunday, 558 inoculation sessions were conducted across the state where a little above 8,000 doses could be administered till 5pm,” said director health services Ajay Chakraborty.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/bengal-buys-covaxin-directly-from-manufacturer-1l-doses-land-in-city/articleshow/82507035.cms
