Vaccines nearing expiry: Small hospitals seek Centre's help

17 Dec , 2021 By : monika singh

Medium and small hospitals are seeking government help to deal with a pileup of Covid-19 vaccines that are nearing expiry even as the authorities are looking to ramp up the vaccination drive in view of the highly mutated Omicron variant.

Association of Healthcare Providers (India) (AHPI), which represents small and medium hospitals, has flagged the health ministry about possible vaccine wastage as lakhs of doses of Covishield and Covaxin in their stocks are set to expire over the next 3-4 months. "There is big stock which is expiring in March/April," said Girdhar Gyani, director general of AHPI.

He said hospitals with unused vaccines have approached the manufacturers to return the vaccines and get refund while AHPI is approaching the health ministry. "Last time the health minister had proposed to utilise spare vaccine for export. We will approach them once again," Gyani said.
An estimated 50 lakh doses of Covishield and Covaxin are lying with the private sector. Out of this, a huge chunk is nearing expiry.

With surplus of vaccines available with private hospitals, AHPI has also proposed the government may consider allowing the eligible population to get a booster dose on a voluntary basis.

The government has already allowed Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) to start supplying Covishield to the Covax international vaccine facility.