Give Unused Vaccine Stocks From Private Hospitals To State: Andhra Chief Minister Tells PM

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday again demanded that the Centre take back unused Covid-19 vaccine stocks from private hospitals and reallot them to the state for better use.

Taking part in the videoconference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Covid-19 situation, along with other Chief Ministers, Mr Jagan said the private hospitals in Andhra Pradesh could so far administer only 4,20,209 doses of the vaccine against their allotment of over 17.71 lakh doses.

"In reality, the private hospitals are not vaccinating fully to their capacity.Whatever these people are earmarked and whatever they are not able to proceed with, if that quota (of vaccines) is re-allotted to the state government, it would help us in doing a better job," the Chief Minister told the Prime Minister.

He said 1,76,70,642 persons could be vaccinated in the state so far though the Centre allocated 1,68,46,210 doses of coronavirus vaccine.

"This was beyond what was supplied to us. We could do it through better management and little wastage," Mr Jagan noted.

On June 29, the Chief Minister wrote to the Prime Minister requesting that the Centre procure Covid-19 vaccines, originally allotted to private establishments and not lifted, and supply them to the state for vaccination drive through government channels.

The past experience and demand clearly indicated that such huge quantities could not be utilised by private hospitals, he said, referring to the 25 per cent stock allocation to the private sector.

On May 22 too, Mr Jagan had written to the Prime Minister asking the Centre to stop supply of coronavirus vaccines to private hospitals in view of the limited availability of stocks and also since the private hospitals were collecting exorbitant amounts from people.

He observed that it was not only a disadvantage to the poorer sections of society who could not afford such high cost, but it also created a situation of black marketing of the vaccine, which administratively would be a Herculean task to control.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)