Top private hospitals have jabs for 2-3 weeks | Economic Times

Three leading private hospital chains, which have rolled out Covid-19 vaccination for the 18-44 age group, have enough vaccines to last between 2 to 3 weeks.Max Healthcare, Fortis and Apollo Group, had received vaccines from private manufacturers to initiate inoculation of the 18-44 year age group on Saturday, May 1. Fortis Healthcare had received 50,000 doses of Covaxin on Saturday afternoon and the hospital chain says it is carrying out vaccination in staggered fashion. Fortis Healthcare has opened vaccination for this age group at 7 locations with a target of inoculating 1,000-1,500 beneficiaries to begin with.“We will ramp up in due course,” a Fortis spokesperson told ET. As per the hospital administration’s estimate the vaccine doses are just enough to cover inoculations for the first 2-3 weeks of May.Overall the vaccination centres of private hospitals are seeing a huge rush. A Max spokesperson told ET that it was an “all hands on deck” situation in most of their vaccination centres. Like Fortis, Max healthcare has also started to carry out vaccination at seven centres.The hospital chain has received “a few lakhs” of both Covishield and Covaxin vaccine doses. Sources said this would be enough to last between 2 to 3 weeks. The hospital is planning 300-500 inoculations per day per centre which would be scaled up by the end of this week. On Monday, the Noida vaccination centre of the group had opened 320 vaccination slots. Despite getting evening slots,beneficiaries turned up in the morning. The vaccination of targeted beneficiaries, who were to be inoculated through the day, was completed within 2 hours of the centre opening.Apollo Healthcare also started vaccinating the 18-45 age group from Saturday. A senior administrative official told ET:“We received both Covaxin and Covishield. There is a lot of demand for the vaccines. The slots get filled up within minutes of opening them. We are trying to gauge the demand and we will scale up gradually.” The private hospital did not share the exact quantum of vaccine doses it has received.There is a rush at the centres despite the vaccines being more expensive than what the private hospitals could charge under the government’s drive before May 1. Fortis Healthcare is charging Rs 1,250 for Covaxin (which includes Rs 1,200 for the vaccine and Rs 50 as vaccine administration charges). Max is charging Rs 900 for both (Rs 600 for vaccine and Rs 300 as administration charges). Apollo is charging Rs 850. So far, 12 states have initiated the vaccination drive for the 18-44 year age group and as per health ministry 180,000 beneficiaries have been inoculated so far.