3.5 lakh Covishield doses spark hope for Kolkata Municipal Corporation drive restart

KOLKATA: The civic body expects to receive fresh stock of Covishield to reopen its 102 vaccination clinics and 50 mega centres on Monday. These clinics and mega centres have been shut since Friday due to an acute shortage of Covishield. Only a handful centres where Covaxin is administered are currently functioning.
Hope of reopening the other centres brightened on Saturday with the arrival of 3.5 lakh doses of Covishield at the state health department’s Bagbazar depot.According to a KMC health official, the Covishield second-dose backlog has already touched the 1 lakh mark and it will steadily rise if KMC fails to administer vaccines from its clinics and mega centres from Monday.
“We need 30,000-35,000 Covishield doses daily for our 102 clinics and 50 mega centres. Now, the stock has come to naught. So it is obvious the current backlog will rise steadily and it will be an uphill task to bridge the gap if stocks don’t arrive by Sunday afternoon,” a KMC official said.
Chairman of the KMC BoA Firhad Hakim expressed concern over non-availability of Covishield. “At present, we have no stock to continue with Covishield vaccination at civic clinics. We hope the Centre will send fresh supplies without delay. Our CM has sent a letter to the PM seeking an immediate supply of Covishield. We can’t reopen our clinics and mega centres till stocks arrive,” Hakim said.
The KMC health department, however, kept its Covaxin clinics and a mega centre open on Saturday. “We have no dearth of Covaxin. We are administering 13,000-15,000 Covaxin doses from our 28 clinics and mega centres. We have stock for four-five days,” said an official.