CHENNAI: Director of Public Health T S Selvavinayagam has instructed all Deputy Directors of Health Services to issue Covaxin in minimum doses to private hospitals after requests from them.
Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech had been offered only in select government vaccination centres in the state till now.
In his letter dated March 2 to all DDHS, the Director of Public Health instructed them to issue Covaxin doses starting with a minimum of one vial to private hospitals upon their request and to inform them to use the vaccine with minimum wastage and obtain consent forms from individuals.
The officials also have been instructed to collect the data from the private hospitals and forward it to the ICMR on a daily basis.
"Considering the requests from various private hospitals and the availability of vaccines in the state, it is hereby decided to provide Covaxin in minimum doses, minimum one vial of 10 doses each, to the private hospitals," the DPH said in his letter.
The Health Department also allowed 616 more private hospitals willing to vaccinate people aged over 60 years and above 45 years with comorbidities after the Union government instructed all the states to allow hospitals who want to participate in the drive.
Earlier, only the empanelled hospitals under central and state health insurance schemes were allowed to vaccinate the above mentioned population. In that regard, a list of 529 government hospitals and 761 private centres were approved as Covid vaccination centres earlier.
The state had received 2.77 lakh doses of Covaxin in January from the Union Health Ministry and the health department officials said it has sufficient stocks to vaccinate the elderly.