Private hospitals lift less than 10% of vaccines

In 12 States or UTs, doses supplied to private facilities was less than 2%

Private hospitals picked up only 9.4% of the COVID vaccines — Covishield and Covaxin — between May 1 and August 17, though 25% of the doses were allotted. Out of the 9.4%, private hospitals had administered 65% by August 13. On the other hand, 90.6% of such doses reached the govt. centres of which they administered 97%. The figures were ascertained from an RTI reply received from the Department of Health and Family Welfare. In 12 States and U.T.s, including Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and Assam, the share of doses supplied to private hospitals was less than 2% of the overall supply. In 8 others, including Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab and Jharkhand, the share was 2% to 4%.