BENGALURU: Although the Serum Institute of India (SII) has six million doses of the Covovax vaccine in stock and ready to be dispatched to private hospitals, many private hospitals in Bengaluru are uninterested in placing orders due to low demand.
Dr Priya Goutham, Media Director, Fortis Hospitals said that they have not placed orders for any vaccines - Covovax, INCOVACC or Corbevax. Public demand is very less across all hospitals lately, however, doctors are recommending them to get vaccinated from nearby Public Health Centres (PHCs).
Private Hospitals and Nursing Home Association (PHANA), President, Dr Prasanna HM said, the demand for vaccines has been extremely low since the past 5-6 months. No private hospitals in Bengaluru have placed any orders for any vaccines as much of the old Covaxin and Covishield stock got wasted due to low daily footfall in private hospitals as a result of which they had to suffer the loss. Hence, despite the availability of the vaccines, they have shown no interest in placing new orders.
Dr Prasanna further explained that Covid has become endemic now and it is likely to be so for the next ten years where surge in cases will be seen once in every few months. He also said, larger hospital chains like Fortis or Manipal Hospitals are more likely to place orders due to high patient footfall. Currently, the priority of most hospitals is to exhaust the current vaccine stock before procuring new ones.
With the ongoing India-wide Covid surge, few states including Karnataka are planning to procure vaccines. The health officials in Karnataka said that provisions are being made to procure around one lakh vaccine doses.