Covid-19 vaccine supplies exceed usage | Economic Times

NEW DELHI: The supply of both Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin has exceeded usage in the first three weeks of the Covid-19 immunisation drive, raising questions on continuing restrictions over access to both vaccines.Health ministry data on vaccine supplies between January 16 and February 9 shows that so far only 31.45% of Covishield and 11.75% of Covaxin dispatched stocks have been administered to healthcare providers, defence personnel and frontline workers.Further, health ministry data furnished to the Lok Sabha shows that between January 14 and February 1, about 18.9 million doses of Covishield were supplied to 37 states and union territories. Of this, 5.95 million doses, about 31.45%, were administered. The data also shows 2.57 million doses of Covaxin were supplied to 19 states in the same time period and only 302,000, about 11.75%, were administered. Two states – Gujarat and Rajasthan – account for over half (57%) of Covaxin usage.Health experts say this is a clear indication that the government needs to scale up and allow other priority groups to get vaccinated. Dr Naveen Thacker, member of Gujarat government’s immunisation task force, told ET: "There is an urgent need for mid-course correction. The vaccine supply has outstripped the demand. Since the uptake of vaccine is low, the Centre should immediately open up the vaccination of other groups."According to officials, states have sufficient stock of Covishield to administer the second dose. But utilisation remains around 20% or less in seven states and five union territories. These include Tamil Nadu (16.5%), Assam (20.82%), Punjab (20.5%), Delhi (20.2%), Chandigarh (12.46%) and Ladakh (10.64%). Three northeast states of Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland have struggled to cross the 10-11% mark."There is a need to scale up if the government has to achieve the target of immunising 300 million people till July-August this year. If the number of healthcare and frontline workers are low, the government should open up the other priority groups. But at the same time we do not want a situation where the person has been given the first dose and there is no supply for the second dose,” said Dr Harsh Mahajan, founder of Mahajan Imaging.‘Measured Approach Better’“A measured approach is better than a frantic approach. We need to be mindful that the virus is mutating. We do not want to face a situation where we need to re-immunise the people because of virus mutations," he said.The uptake of the indigenously developed Covaxin has been slower. Initially, it was deployed only in 12 states and later extended to seven more states. However, of these 19, three opposition-ruled states of Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Kerala decided against administering Covaxin till Phase-3 trial data is made available. Of the remaining states, 12 have so far reported about 10% utilisation of doses supplied.These states include Assam (4.9%), Bihar (8.55%), Delhi (5.96%), Haryana (6.96%), Karnataka (3.35%), Madhya Pradesh (10.56%), Maharashtra (2.86%), Tamil Nadu (1.8%), Telangana (1.1%), Uttar Pradesh (5.7%), West Bengal (0.64%) and Jharkhand (4.56%). Only four states have registered over 10% Covaxin utilisation. These include Odisha (12%), Andhra Pradesh (14.79%), Rajasthan (38.77%) and Gujarat (70.5%). A senior Jharkhand health department official told ET: "We are treading carefully in administering Covaxin. It has been deployed in government medical colleges and hospitals. At the same time there is hesitancy especially because the beneficiary has to sign a consent form. We expect the uptake to improve."