Kerala, which had allegedly claimed to have achieved zero-vaccine wastage of Covid-19 vaccines last year, now accounts for nearly 20 per cent of vaccine wastage, reports the Times of India.
According to the reports, there are no takers for vaccines in Kerala, especially in private hospitals, leading to the expiry of vaccines. Even the free vaccines provided by the government have reached their expiry.
“Despite best efforts, some hospitals could not attract people even for a free vaccination. Due to this, some of the vaccine stock was dumped as it expired. As a result, hospitals have incurred huge losses, and we have decided not to invest any more in Covid vaccine purchase. There is not much demand for vaccines now,” said Dr Anvar M Ali, general secretary, Kerala Private Hospitals Association.
According to Abdul Wahab, secretary of the Qualified Private Medical Practitioners’ Association, vaccine wastage is a reality in private hospitals in Kerala.
“We want to ensure that there is no wastage, but now that appears impossible. When vaccines are available easily for free in government hospitals, why would people be willing to pay for them? Therefore, either the government should buy back all vaccines or vaccine makers should. Otherwise, vaccine wastage will continue,” added Abdul Wahab.
As per the report, the private hospitals in Kerala had stocked up the vaccines during the peak of the second wave when there was a huge demand for vaccines grew. The private hospitals took bank loans at 5% interest to buy vaccines worth Rs 20 lakh to Rs 1 crore from the manufacturers.
However, post-Onam in 2021, there has been a drop in people approaching private hospitals for paid vaccines as there was enough stock in government hospitals. With this, in the majority of hospitals, 10% to 20% of vaccines were wasted despite the government’s efforts to replace near-expiry vaccines, as per the TOI report.
“The main reason for this is, what do we do with the exchanged vaccines? There are no takers for vaccines in private hospitals now,” a Kerala health ministry official was quoted as saying. Most of the private hospitals across the state are suffering from the problem, however, the situation is critical in Thrissur and Ernakulam districts.
Apparently, many private hospitals have recently incurred heavy losses due to expired Covishield stocks. Recently, the Serum Institute, which produces the Covishield vaccine, has also slashed the prices, resulting in losses for these private hospitals.
The health department officials worry that with the current low uptake of vaccines, even the existing stocks are likely to stay on the shelf and expire.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Kerala turned out to be one of the epicentres of the pandemic, alongside Maharashtra. The two opposition-ruled states consistently recorded a high number of cases in both the waves of the pandemic. At one point in time, the two states accounted for nearly 70 per cent of the total cases in the country,
