BENGAL HAVE ONLY TWO DAYS STOCKS OF COVID-19 DOSES

In Calcutta on Friday, hospitals had temporarily stop vaccination because of the shortage of vaccine doses.

Bengal has only two days' stock for the COVID-19 vaccine doses. On Friday, several centers have suspended vaccination in Calcutta, and on Saturday the other said that they could not control the jab of shortage. 

The official of the health department said on Friday that Bengal had almost 8 lakh vials of COVID vaccine left. According to an average 3 or, 4 lakh bottles of the COVID vaccine are needed every day across the state.

The official of the health department said: “We were supposed to receive a consignment of vaccines from the Centre on Friday but it didn’t come. Officials in Delhi were unable to tell us when the next consignment would be sent. If we don’t get fresh supply by Monday or Tuesday, vaccination will come to a stop. We asked the Centre on Friday to supply vaccines on an emergency basis.”

The health department official said that they need to control the supply of the COVID-19 vaccine to the vaccination centers and hospitals.

For the shortage of the vaccine supply, several states have complained about it. Maharashtra had close many centers of the COVID-19 vaccination because of the fewer numbers of vaccine doses.

The official of Bengal’s Health Department said: “There is a lack of transparency on the part of Union government officials. They must clearly tell us what is the situation and when we can expect the next consignment.”

In Calcutta, the vaccination had temporarily stopped on Friday because of the shortage of the vaccine.

The clinic ‘Belle Vue’ had suspended the vaccination for COVID for an hour (from 4:30 pm).

Pradip Tondon (the CEO of Belle Vue) said: “We had sought 35 vials from the health department on Friday but received only 20. We had 11 more from Thursday’s supply but, all 31 were exhausted by 4.30 pm.”

At a time there are at least fifty people who are waiting for the COVID-19 vaccine. The hospital is looking for more vials, and they got five vials. Pradip Tondon said that from 5:30 the vaccination will start. 

The other hospital also got less vaccine from what they had asked for.

On Friday, RN Tagore International (Institute of Cardiac Science) had to look for 35 bottles of the vaccine but, they got only 25 bottles. 

The R. Venkatesh (regional director), Narayana Health (the RN Tagore hospital is a part) said: “We had a few vials left from yesterday, which we used today. There’ll be no vaccination on Saturday at our hospital because there is no stock and also because of the elections. The health department has promised to send a few vials of Covaxin on Sunday. If we get those, some people will be vaccinated on Sunday but many have to be asked to come on a later date.”

On Saturday AMRI Hospitals Salt Lake, will not run vaccination, the official of the hospital said: “We have not received any vials. We'll be forced to put up posters stating ‘No Vaccine Available’ at the AMRI Salt Lake vaccination center till we receive further supplies.”

An official of CMC (Calcutta Municipal Corporation) said that on Saturday the civic body will hardly manage the vaccine.

The official said: “There will not be adequate stock for Sunday,” the Calcutta Municipal Corporation has vaccinated almost 11,000 people every day from 80 clinics.

The official also said: “It could be we will be vaccinating whoever comes till stocks last.”

The scale-up vaccinations could be hampered if the vaccine dose supply does not resume. The plan of CMC has to start the vaccinations in 40 clinics, and the total number of the clinics where the vaccinations running is 120 (starts from the middle of April) but the amount of vaccine supply has jumped the plan.