Karnataka placed a request with the central government for 25 lakh doses of Covishield and five lakh doses of Corbevax at the end of last week. The state is yet to get any response from the Centre, even as it is gearing up to increase the booster dose coverage from 20% to 50% by January end.
Currently, the state has no doses of either Covishield or Corbevax, said Dr Rajini, Deputy Director (Immunisation), State Health Department. As of now, the state only has 8.4 lakh doses of Covaxin. Since they will expire in January-February, the vaccines will be administered soon to beneficiaries.
District-level officers for Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) will be in charge of vaccinations, Dr Rajini said. “Covaxin was mainly opted by people in urban areas and industrial clusters, so only they can take the booster dose now. We have asked district RCH officers to download the list of beneficiaries (for booster or second dose).”
Meanwhile, the demand for booster dose is rising in private hospitals. Dr Yatheesh Govindaiah, VP and Unit Head at Apollo Hospital Jayanagar, said that since this week, around 100 people have been seeking booster doses from the hospital daily, compared to single-digit numbers till the beginning of December.
The hospital has around 9,000 doses of Covishield and 1,000 doses of Covaxin currently.
“The way private hospitals stock vaccines will be dynamic, depending on consumer demand. There is no estimate of the total doses available with private hospitals now,” said Dr Yatheesh, who is also the president of the Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA).
For Bengaluru, the BBMP has 1.8 lakh doses of Covaxin, said BBMP Special Commissioner (Health) Dr Trilok Chandra, adding that these doses would be administered before their expiry period.
Intranasal vaccines are not part of the state’s plan yet as approvals and guidelines are yet to come from the central government.
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