A total of 3.56 crore COVID-19 vaccines have been procured by private hospitals till August 2 and the doses once procured by them are not re-allocated to government vaccination centres, the Lok Sabha was informed on Friday.
Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar, in a written reply, said the demand for Covid vaccines from private hospitals is aggregated on Co-WIN portal, and the Centre, through which, facilitates the sourcing of these vaccines by private hospitals in coordination with state governments and vaccine manufacturers.
"The private hospitals, accordingly, prepare and publish the schedule of vaccination on Co-WIN portal as per the availability of vaccines with them.
"As on August 2, 2021, a total of 3.56 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been procured by private hospitals. The COVID-19 vaccines once procured by private hospitals are not re-allocated to government vaccination centres," she said.
The minister was responding to a question on Covishield and Covaxin vaccines released to the government centres and private hospitals under the 75:25 formula since January, 2021.
She was asked if the private hospitals are not able to fully utilise their monthly quota and whether the government proposes to re-allocate such quota of unutilised vaccines from private hospitals to government vaccination centres of the concerned state/UTs, on a daily or monthly basis, for optimum utilisation of the vaccines.
Ms Pawar said from May 1 to June 20, the 'Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy'' was implemented to incentivise production by vaccine manufacturers and encourage new COVID-19 vaccines.
Under this strategy, states/UTs and private hospitals were allowed to procure COVID-19 vaccines directly from manufacturers.
The Government of India procured 50 per cent of monthly vaccine production by domestic manufacturers, state governments and private hospitals procured the remaining 50 per cent doses.
"The Revised Guidelines for Implementation of National COVID Vaccination Program came in effect from June 21, under which Government of India procures 75 per cent and private hospitals can procure up to 25 per cent of monthly vaccine production," the MoS said in her reply.
In order to ensure maximum utilisation of the vaccines, a 15 days advance visibility of vaccine availability to states and UTs is provided by the central government with an advice to prepare and publicise in advance district-wise and CVC-wise plan for accelerating the coverage of COVID-19 vaccination and for maximising the convenience of citizens, the reply stated.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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