70,000 Covishield doses likely to go to waste soon: IMA

PUNE: An estimated 70,000 more Covishield doses are likely to go to waste at private hospitals in Pune by end of this month and early April, members of the Indian Medical Association said on Saturday.

Dr Sanjay Patil, chairperson of the IMA’s Hospital Board of India (Pune chapter), said the estimate is based on stock data from small private hospitals in the region. “This number will be much higher when unused, soon-to-expire doses are accounted for at bigger private hospitals,” he said.

Low demand for Covid-19 vaccination, especially for paid jabs, has caused large numbers of unused vaccine vials to pile up at private centres. On February 25, the state government allowed private hospitals to donate soon-to-expire doses to government sites. But the move hasn’t prevented instances of bulk wastage.

A PMC official said some 61,000 Covishield doses were donated by hospitals to civic centres last month. “Of these, government sites could use about 15,000. The rest — 46,000 doses — expired as they had no takers,” the official said.

Fears of more bulk wastage and financial loss have caused private-sector participation in the vaccine drive to shrink by over 70% here.

Dr Sanjay Deshmukh, assistant director, health services, Pune region, said the district, on most days, doesn’t have more than 55 private sites giving Covid vaccines. The average used to 210, he said

Private sites have also not opened Corbevax drives for the 12-14 age group as the shot is free at government centres.

Dr Amita Phadnis, director of Oyster N Pearl (ONP) Hospitals, said nearly 6,000 Covishield doses with the hospital had expired on February 28 this year. “We have more Covishield doses set to expire by March-end. Once we finish this stock, we will not be replenishing our Covishield stocks again,” she said. Some hospitals said they have Covaxin doses too, expiring by May.

Dr Madhav Chavan, MD of Phoenix Hospital, said the unit has nearly 7,000 Covaxin doses expiring on May 5.

He said, “The Centre has allowed only Corbevax for the 12-14 age group, though Covaxin has been permitted for the older age groups. There is huge demand for Covaxin in the 12-14 age group, but permission to give it to the age group is missing. This is despite the Drugs Controller General of India granting the vaccine emergency use approval in the paediatric population between 12 and 18 years.”