Mumbai: Pvt hospitals with 45L unused shots hope booster clears stock – ET HealthWorld

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Saturday that ‘precaution doses’ (boosters) for health and frontline workers as well as those above 60 with co-morbidities will begin from January 10. While vaccination for children aged 15-18 will begin on January 3 using Covaxin, the details of which vaccine would be used for booster and after what interval following the second dose is yet to be made public.

Dr Pradeep Vyas, additional chief secretary (health), said that as per the last available information, private facilities had more than 45 lakh doses. State as well as BMC data, however, shows that a majority of the stock lying with hospitals is that of Covishield, followed by Covaxin and Sputnik. The BMC had asked private hospitals to declare their stocks about a month ago. About 30-odd hospitals responded to the corporation. The data gathered showed that they had around 7 lakh doses of Covishield and nearly 40,000 doses of Covaxin, and less than 5,000 doses of Sputnik.

However, speculation is that Covishield or Covaxin are unlikely to be used as boosters. Epidemiologist Dr Chandrakant Lahariya said that there is a good possibility that Covovax could be used as a booster shot. “Globally, mRNA vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna have been used as boosters mainly, but since we don’t have those, Covovax is likely to be the candidate,” he said. While those holding Covishield are still worried, private hospitals with stocks of Covaxin are hopeful of findings takers once vaccination for children begins. Covaxin and Zycov-D are two vaccines that have received approval for children.

Joy Chakraborty, COO of PD Hinduja Hospital, said that the booster announcement has come as a relief to some. “Some hospitals had vaccines which were expiring in November and December, so the news didn’t help them. But for most others, the expiry is between February and May,” he said. “We are waiting to see what vaccines are recommended as booster and what schedule is announced for children,” he said.

Dr Sachin Desai, state immunisation officer, said that there may be some spurt in demand as more people become eligible for second doses. “Due to the 84-day gap, many are not able to take second shots across districts,” he said. Private hospitals, however, may never see the demand it did in June this year, said Dr Prince Surana, CEO of Surana hospitals. “Public sector is now flush with doses, so that crisis will never arise again,” he said.