A retired government employee, Madan Mohan stays in a residential locality which is 10 km away from Genome valley. The Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Hyderabad houses Bharat Biotech, manufacturers of Covaxin, India’s indigenous COVID-19 vaccine currently in use. Madan Mohan and his wife took pride in their first shot of Covaxin more than a month back and decided to take the second and final jab before flying to the United States for a vacation.
“We have been trying to get the shot for the last 4 days. We went to a few private hospitals, including those which are far from our house, and they turned us away. We were either told that there is no vaccine or we need to take it at the same place where we went the first time.”
Frustrated, the family is unsure if they can travel as per their earlier schedule. “What is the use of having the vaccines in our backyard if we cannot access it?”
Hyderabad, in the current circumstances, is a microcosm of India. The country, which is being touted as the vaccine capital of the world, is facing a shortage. So does Hyderabad, home to one of the two vaccine manufacturers of the country.
There are around 100 private and 130 government hospitals and health centres that were roped in for the vaccination process in the greater Hyderabad region. Enquiries made with 10 well-known private hospitals in Telangana’s capital was met with an unfavourable response. None of them had any vaccine stock going by their claims. “We do not know when we can resume,” replied a representative of a multi-speciality hospital. It was learnt that most of the private hospitals were facing a similar situation.
“We have very few left and we are giving it only to people based on recommendation,” said a doctor working at a corporate hospital.
Telangana with a population of about four Crores could administer around 30 lakh doses (including both the first and second shots) to healthcare workers and also those above 45 years. According to the state health officials, initially, there was visible reluctance to take Covaxin and Covishield vaccines even within the medical fraternity. However, as the second wave swept through leading to mass infections in the state, there was a sudden demand for vaccines.
Daily, 50,000-60,000 people were being given the first dose till 2 weeks back. This number has more than doubled now. On April 17, 1.39 lakh first doses of the vaccine were given.
As a result, the state ran out of vaccine stock. Anticipating the shortage, the Chief Secretary of Telangana shot off a letter to the Union Health Secretary on April 10 requesting 30 lakh doses to sustain for a period of 15 days. It was followed up by communication between state health minister E. Rajender and union health minister Harsha Vardhan and discussions between the officials of both sides. The state even had to suspend the vaccination process for a day due to the shortage. Only a part of what was requested was sent by the centre as a batch of 2.7 lakh doses arrived on Sunday.
During a press meet, the state Health Minister hoped that the issue of fair distribution of vaccines to the states would be resolved soon. Meanwhile, the state, in possession of around 3 lakh vaccines has only 48 hours of stock left.
Throughout Monday, only government-run health centres resumed the vaccination process with the new stock. “We are giving out only 100 tokens as instructed by our higher-ups. Though many have turned up we will have only limited number of doses,” said a contract worker in charge of a primary health centre in the old city part of Hyderabad.
The health department officials are unsure if any new batch of vaccines will be sent on time, barring which, there will be no option but to briefly halt the process, again.
