Apollo Hospitals has offered to share around five lakh doses of Covaxin from its stock to the Tamil Nadu government. The proposal comes at a time when the state is facing acute shortage of Bharat Biotech manufactured vaccine. According to a report in Hindu Under the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 3.94 lakh people in Tamil Nadu have missed the second dose of Covaxin, which is of 4-6 weeks till August 15.
Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramaniam on Friday launched the Institute of Hernia Surgery and Abdominal Wall Reconstruction at Apollo Hospital, urging corporates to come forward and use their CSR funds to procure those vaccines from Apollo Hospitals and government hospitals. Help us to replenish our stock. Sunita Reddy, MD, Apollo Hospitals Group were present.
‘humming response’
Apollo Hospitals’ offer comes at a time when vaccination in private hospitals is getting a lukewarm response amid a sharp drop in the number of fresh COVID cases across the country.
Although 25 per cent of the vaccines are reserved for private hospitals, their share in immunization has been only 10 per cent or less, as people prefer to get their tests done free of cost at government centres.
K Hari Prasad – President, Hospital Division, Apollo Hospitals also indicated this trend during the Q1 FY22 earnings call last week. He said that from one lakh vaccinations per day, the number for the hospital chain has dropped to 25,000-30,000 at present due to various reasons. Apollo Hospitals CFO A Krishnan had then said that the hospital chain had a vaccine inventory of Rs 150 crore as of June 2021.
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