GURUGRAM: The health department has prepared five facilities to receive doses of Sputnik V, the Russian Covid-19 vaccine.
Gurugram is likely to receive a few thousand doses of the vaccine for first-dose recipients by the first week of July.
They can take the second dose after 21 days of the first jab.
According to the department, the five government facilities where Sputnik V will be available are Sector 10 Civil Hospital, Wazirabad primary health centre, Pataudi Civil Hospital, Sohna Civil Hospital and Sector 31 polyclinic.
“A three-member team of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories visited some of our government facilities to conduct an inspection.
They are satisfied with the arrangements we have made for the vaccine and we will receive the first doses of Sputnik V soon.
We have freezers which can maintain a temperature of -20 degrees Celsius.
This is one of the major criteria to receive the vaccine,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, Gurugram.
Some private hospitals in Gurugram like Fortis and Columbia Asia have permission to give Sputnik V, but since they haven’t received any communication about the second dose of the vaccine, they aren’t administering any doses at present.
Meanwhile, Gurugram received 11,000 doses of Covishield and 10,000 of Covaxin on Thursday.
The health department, however, has no plans to start giving the first dose of Covaxin again anytime soon, intending to focus on administering it only to second-dose recipients.
Chances of getting it are slim since the Centre has not allotted any Covaxin doses for private hospitals.
“Currently, we are not administering the first dose of Covaxin to recipients as we aren’t confident about its supply.
Only second dose of Covaxin is available in Gurugram,” the CMO said.
Residents seeking Covaxin jabs have expressed disappointment about its unavailability despite waiting for over one-and-a-half months.
“Slots are available for Covishield, but I want to take Covaxin as the second dose can be taken in 30 days.
With Covishield, we have to wait for 84 days to take the second dose,” said Rakesh Sharma, a resident of Sector 31.