45 lakh people due for 2nd dose of Covid vaccine in Karnataka, but private hospitals sit on huge stocks

As many as 45.14 lakh people were due for their second Covid vaccine shot in Karnataka as of 9.30 am on Wednesday. This is an increase from 41.66 lakh people who were due for their second dose on October 10.

Among those due for the second jab are not only 41.75 lakh common citizens, but also a whopping 77,406 health workers and 2.62 lakh frontline workers, who are all too well aware of the perils of being partially vaccinated or unvaccinated. In October, the state administered 13.25 lakh fewer second doses than it did in September (66.46 lakh).

That month, it administered only 53.21 lakh second doses. Five districts with the highest number of people due for their second dose are: BBMP (11.84 lakh), Belagavi (2.54 lakh), Mysuru (2.39 lakh), Bengaluru Urban (2.19 lakh) and Kalaburagi (1.72 lakh). Kalaburagi also has the least first dose coverage in the state (73 per cent).

While state health commissioner D Randeep attributed the slowdown to the festive season in October-November, private hospitals say despite lakhs of people being due for a second dose, and thousands of vaccine doses being available with them, they have been left unused as they have to be paid for by end-users.

Sparsh Hospital Group, with four branches in the city and one in Hassan, said that they’ll wait only till December to write to Serum Institute of India (SII), to take back 90,000 Covishield doses which expire in March 2022.

Also read: Mandaviya to meet state, UT Health Ministers on vaccination drive on November 11

Free jabs

Guruprasad B R, director of strategy, Sparsh Hospital, said, “We have more number of unused Covishield doses piled up compared to 15,000 unused Covaxin doses. Since it is paid vaccination, we are hardly able to vaccinate 15-20 people in a day as they’re all getting it free at government centres.”

“Normally, the practice among pharmaceutical majors is to take medicines back if they’re about to expire. We’ll write to SII in December as our 90,000 Covishield doses expire in March.”

While Apollo Hospital has 18,000 Covishield doses that expire in February, Narayana Health has 35,000 unused Covishield doses. Suguna Hospital has 1,350 Covishield doses which expire in March and are exhausting only one vial per week.

Karthik Rajagopal, COO, Manipal Hospitals, which has 8,448 unused Covishield doses at its 10 Bengaluru branches alone, said, “It has been observed that vaccination turnaround is directly associated with the number of active cases around. Fear is the biggest pulling factor for people to come for vaccination.”

Some people who have taken the first dose are not coming for the second as they either are newly diagnosed with an illness or have restarted treatment like chemotherapy, making them ineligible for the first or second dose.”

Among other reasons for the trend is the extended gap between two doses from that planned initially, resulting in people migrating to hometowns or work-towns before taking their second dose, he said.

Watch the latest DH Videos here: