Private hospitals are not yet keen on procuring Covid-19 vaccines and awaiting clarity from the government on vaccination even as a surge in Covid-19 cases has sparked concerns. Senior executives of top private hospitals said they have no stocks of Covid vaccines and are not planning to procure them as of now as the rise in cases is caused by a mild variant of the virus.
“This is a milder version of Covid-19. Right now, we are not seeing any hospitalisation or severity of the disease, so would want to wait and watch and not do any procurement right away,” said a senior executive at a leading private hospital. Many executives disclosed that their hospitals have not procured vaccines since 2021 as there is hardly any demand and they have exhausted their supplies.
They now await government guidelines and will act accordingly, one of the executives said.
“The hospitals have seen a drop in the number of vaccinations each month. This year has seen a drastic drop in demand as most people have already taken it,” the person said. The uptake of vaccines had remained low when the country saw an increase in the number of cases in April, executives pointed out.
Active Covid-19 cases in India had touched 11,109 on April 14.
“But there was hardly any demand for vaccination that we saw in April and hence we are not expecting any drastic change now as well,” a second executive said.
India witnessed an increase of 628 new Covid-19 cases in a single day, contributing to a rise in the active caseload, which reached 4,054, as per the data provided by the Union health ministry. So far, 63 cases of JN.1 Covid variant have been reported in the country. Of these, 34 cases have been from Goa, nine from Maharashtra, eight from Karnataka, four from Kerala, four from Tamil Nadu, and two from Telangana.
While cases of newly detected subvariant are surging, XBB continues to be dominant in India.
N K Arora, head of Covid Advisory Group, had earlier told ET that those who have received a precautionary dose don’t require any additional precaution doses.
India’s first mRNA-based Omicron-specific Covid-19 vaccine, Gemcovac by Gennova Biopharmaceuticals has been approved as a booster shot that can work well against this variant. A company spokesperson said the vaccine’s consumption has picked up dramatically in last 2-3 weeks. It is available in 50 centres including some Covid vaccination centres registered with the Co-Win app, hospitals, and large clinics.
(Catch all the Business News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)
Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.
