Bengaluru private hospitals offer Independence Day rebates to use up doses

Private hospitals are offering Independence Day discounts on Sunday on Covid vaccines as they’re struggling to liquidate vaccine stocks, especially Covaxin. Doses allocated to Karnataka’s private quota in August are 12.46 lakh of Covishield and 1.94 lakh of Covaxin.

While all vaccination centres of Apollo hospital group (hospitals, Apollo clinics and Apollo Cradle units) and United Hospital are offering a discount on Covaxin, Rajashekar Multispecialty Hospital is offering discounts on Covishield vaccine.

A standalone private hospital in Gandhi Nagar sold its stock to Suguna hospital, Rajajinagar, to liquidate Covaxin stock of 1,350 doses. The head of the hospital who did not want to be named said, “The uptake of Covaxin was very slow. So we sold our stock to Suguna hospital.”

As of Saturday, Apollo’s Jayanagar branch alone had 40,000 Covishield doses and 5,000 Covaxin doses. Covaxin has a shelf life of five months compared to Covishield’s nine.

Called the ‘Freedom Offer’ of Covaxin, Apollo has been offering this vaccine brand at Rs 1,250 per dose without any additional service charge as against the government capped price of Rs 1,410 since August 12, which will go on till August 21 daily from 8 am to 8 pm.

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Despite the discount, from August 12 to 13, only 84 Covaxin doses were administered. Even without a discount, 371 Covishield doses have been administered during the same period. Hence, to encourage people, a person who took the first dose at a discounted price is offered the same rate for the second dose.

A doctor from Apollo told DH, “We purchased 10,000 Covaxin doses at the beginning of the month and have administered only 5,000. We are positive that the remaning 5,000 doses will be administered within four more months, well before the expiry date.”

He said the cost and lack of WHO approval were both deterrents to Covaxin.

As many as 15,000 doses of Covaxin procured by United Hospital, Jayanagar, will be given at a discount of Rs 210. Since July 27, Covaxin is being administered at Rs 1200 at the hospital, its network clinics in Rajajinagar and JP Nagar, and 20 of its associate hospitals.

“There is a shortage of vaccines in the city, especially Covaxin, which is effective against the Delta variant of the virus. Till date, we have vaccinated 1,221 people with Covaxin at a discounted price. We have 15,000 doses and all of these will be offered at the same price. Once a person avails of the first dose, the second dose is automatically reserved for them,” said Dr Shantakumar Muruda, executive director, United Hospital.

Dr Ramesh Somayaji, chairman of Rajashekar Hospital, JP Nagar, told DH: “We are only ordering 500 doses in batches. So, liquidation of stocks is not the reason for the discount on I-Day. As social responsibility, we are offering Covishield at Rs 700 as opposed to Rs 780.”