KOCHI: In a worrying sign, the state is facing a shortage of Covid booster shots amid the Union Government’s fresh warning of a possible surge in the viral infection over the next month. Covishield and Corbevax vaccines are not available for the last few days in government hospitals and health centres, according to sources. However, booster doses are available in private hospitals.
An official at Disha, a Covid helpline of the state government, admitted to TNIE: “There is a shortage of vaccines, and the government has informed us that they have taken measures to deliver enough doses of covid vaccine.”
An official at the Directorate of Health Services, Thiruvananthapuram, explained that the government hospitals had enough booster doses at their disposal till last month but these got expired as there were no takers. “We began providing the precautionary dose to everyone above the age of 18 by the mid of 2022, and booster doses for senior citizens and health workers began even before that. We had opened many vaccination centres as well,” he said, adding that people were not coming to vaccination centres for the precautionary dose.
“This led to a large number of booster doses getting expired last month. Now, there is a spike in Covid cases, leading to a slight increase in demand as well. “The state government has now requested the central government for 25,000 Covishield doses for one month. They will provide according to our utilisation,” said the health department official, who wished not to be named. “This is a national-level deficit. Many other states are also facing a shortage of Covishield vaccine,” he said.
Ernakulam Reproductive and Child Health officer, Dr Shivadas, said, “around 14,000 doses of COVAXIN have arrived in the state capital and are allocated to the districts”.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Veena George said that around 14,000 doses of COVAXIN are available in the state right now. “We have requested the central government for doses of Covishield and Corbevax vaccine as well. The Central government has informed us that they will provide the Covishield vaccine. There is no intimation about Corbevax. Hope we will get it too,” she said.
Sources from health centres said people are contacting them for booster doses after the recent rise in Covid cases. “People are contacting us asking for the booster dose. But, right now, the vaccine is not available in health centres. Furthermore, the number of people taking booster doses is fewer compared to the first two doses,” the official said.
So far, only 30,73,925, that is 10% of the population, have taken booster doses in Kerala. The development comes at a time when the Kerala government recently directed that people aged above 60, those with comorbidities and frontline health workers urgently take the booster dose against Covid. The state issued the direction after a meeting of the Covid-19 review committee which evaluated the current situation and the preparedness of the state health department in the wake of China reporting a sharp increase in the number of Covid-19 cases due to the BE.7 variant.