With a large enough stock of Covid-19 vaccines that are not used in Indian private hospitals closer to the expiration date, the private health care sector has asked the government to allow booster shots to be given to people who are fully vaccinated.
More than 50 Doses of Lakh Vaccine Covid-19 lying not used in private hospitals in Maharashtra, data from the State Public Health Department shows. In Mumbai, a private hospital was sitting around 19 doses of the lakh vaccine. The amount is higher at Pune at 20.48 lakh doses.
Scroll. In unable to access data on vaccine national supplies in private hospitals, but with shares lying in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and other cities, it will definitely be substantial.
In some private hospitals in Maharashtra, officials said the vaccine stock is scheduled to end between January and March next year. The shelf life of the Covid-19 vaccine in India varies from six months to sputnik, nine months for covishield and one year for Covaxin, if it is properly stored.
India currently only allows two doses of Covid-19 vaccine to be given to its citizens. About 40 countries, mostly in a rich and advanced world, which has reached a very high level of vaccination coverage, allows their citizens to access the third dose, called a booster dose, to add decay antibodies to the Coronavirus novel.
But the World Health Organization has criticized this policy, reaffirming the need for first to identify high-risk populations throughout the world. Last week, Dr. Tedros Adhanom, director, who said six times more booster doses had been given globally than the first dose in low-income countries. “This is a scandal that must stop now,” he said.
The global situation found parallel in India. Nearly 60% of the population of adults in this country have not fully immunized. Nonetheless, the private sector encourages a booster dose, mostly because it has knocked a small segment of the Indian population which is willing to pay a vaccine.
Rooted problems in differential prices
On November 12, the association of health care providers, which included private hospitals among its members, wrote to the Ministry of Health who requested a dose of booster to be approved to strengthen vaccinated antibodies.
But in conversations with scroll.in, the executive private hospital admitted the main consideration was commercial. Unless the booster dose is approved, they will not be able to reduce the stock they have bought.
India has a policy for determining differential vaccine – Vaccination in government centers is carried out for free, while the private sector is permitted to charge up to RS 780 for Covishield and RS 1,410 for Covaxin for one dose. Since May, the government has announced that the private sector will be permitted to buy 25% of the total vaccine produced domestically every month.
