Kolkata: The lack of acute covaxin supply on Thursday forced Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to close the Covid Vaccination Center (CVC) which manages the vaccine.
Covaxin stock is very inadequate and therefore it is impossible for the Civic body to maintain its clinic which only manages the open covaxin dose, according to Atin Ghosh, a member of the KMC (BoA) administrator board.
However, the KMC health official section even felt temporary closure may expand the second-dose backlog of Covaxin, which now stands at 40,000 doses.
There are 38 KMC vaccination clinics that only manage Covaxin shots.
“At present, our Covaxin stock is very bad so we can’t even set aside five bottles for each center that is meant exclusively to manage the covaxin dose.
So, after a round of discussion with Civic Brass, we have decided to close our Covaxin clinic for this weekend .
Hopefully, we will continue vaccination from next week as long as the Covaxin supply increases, “said the KMC health department official.
Apart from 38 vaccination clinics, KMC has run the covaxin mega center at Roxy Theater.
The mega center will also remain closed this week, adding citizenship officials.
A KMC health official related to the Covid Vaccination process on Thursday declared concerns over the scarcity of the covaxin dose.
“With Smanty Supply, it almost doesn’t meet the big demands, the fat is now increasing every day.
We don’t know what the supply doesn’t improve this weekend,” said Civic officials.
The sources at the KMC health department said the deficiency of Covaxin had forced them to distribute five bottles to 38 vaccination clinics in the past two weeks.
“Even two weeks ago, the scene was not encouraging.
We face a crisis throughout the month, which has led to the deposit of 40,000 second-dose recipients,” said a KMC health department official.
However, the increase in the supply of covishield doses on Thursday allows KMC health officials to allocate 200 doses to the clinic which only manages covishield.
More than 150 KMC vaccination clinics manage the dose of covishield.
“With the supply of covishield, we can clean the part of the backlog as far as the second dose of covishield,” said KMC health official.
According to a KMC medical officer posted in Tollygunge, 70% of the additional allocation of the covishield dose continues to be provided for the second dose recipient.
Most private hospitals have very low covaxin reserves and some have been given between 50 and 60 dose a day, different from the covishield, which is above 600.
RN Tagore International Insrtitute of Cardiac Sciences (RTIICS), for example has been given less than 50 a day.
“We have a very limited amount,” said Zonal Head RTIik R Venkatesh.
Peerless Hospital gives 62 covaxin doses on Thursday while the Covishield calculation is 385.
“Covaxin supply is always low and there is no change,” said CEO Nearless Sudipta Mitra.