Mumbai is reeling under the shortage of Covishield vaccine at some of their covid vaccine centers. However, the city public vaccine centers have stock that will last for the next 10-12 days, while the state has only three lakh Covishield doses left. Civic and state health officials said they have not received the stock from the central government yet due to which Corbevax is being given as the precautionary or booster dose. Meanwhile, the private vaccine centers are not affected as they have enough stock of Covishield.
Senior health officials said they are constantly following up with the state immunisation to check if the Covishield stock has come so that we can send our team to get the vaccine stock. “We have very limited stock which has been kept for giving booster or second dose. Most of our centres have the stock which should get over in next 10-12 days depending on the demand,” he said.
According to the data, in Maharashtra, more than five crore beneficiaries were eligible for booster doses but the special immunization drive saw only 10 per cent (47 lakh) taking the precautionary dose. Moreover, Mumbai, Pune, Thane and Nagpur were among the districts that had the maximum number of beneficiaries due for the second and booster doses. Of which Pune tops the list of 59 lakhs beneficiaries due for the precaution dose, followed by Mumbai (72) and Thane (44).
Mumbai sees close to 2000 covid-19 vaccination which includes a high percentage of precautionary doses in the age group above 15.
Dr Sachin Desai, state immunisation officer said, they are supposed to give Corbevax as the precautionary dose due to no supply of Covishield from the central government. “ We usually do a round-up with each corporation asking them to demand and supply a vaccine and according to the stock requirement, it is sent to the centre. But this time we have not received any consignment of Covishield for a month,” he said.
As per the guidelines, one can take Hyderabad-based Biological E's Corbevax as a booster dose after completion of six months or 26 weeks from the date of administration of the second dose of either Covaxin or Covishield vaccines for those aged above 18 years. “With the covid-19 cases dipping everywhere, there is an overall hesitation among people,” said Dr Desai.
