No vaccine in many government hospitals

Most of the Government Hospitals in this district have run out of COVID-19 vaccine and people were being asked to turn up after Monday.

While officials in the Health Department are doubtful about getting the replenishment by Tuesday, Collector R. Kannan said that fresh stocks of vaccines were expected by Monday.

While Covishield vaccines had run out in many hospitals two days back, even the Covaxin doses have been exhausted. “Only those who had registered for the second dose of jab were given Covaxin,” said a senior health official of a Government Hospital.

Meanwhile, private hospitals in many southern districts that have been authorized to take up COVID-19 treatment who have stocks of Remdesivir, an anti-viral drug.

“We are getting calls from private hospitals from Virudhunagar, Madurai and Tirunelveli districts. However, we have asked the hospitals to send the patients to Government Hospitals if they were badly in need of Remdesivir injections,” a senior official said.

The private hospitals were eagerly waiting for Remdesivir injections after paying money in advance. “A private hospital doctor said the pharmaceutical company representative had told them to wait for at least two more days for fresh stocks,” the senior medical officer said.

Meanwhile, the Collector said that Remdesivir was being given to private hospitals only in case of emergencies. “Otherwise, we ask the private hospitals to shift the patients to Government Hospitals,” he said.

The Centre has given instructions that only those COVID-19 patients who were in need of oxygen support should be given Remdesivir injection.

Meanwhile, all the Government Hospitals in the district have been provided with adequate quantity of oxygen. A new oxygen plant with 6 KL capacity was commissioned at the Government Medical College Hospital here on Saturday.