Mumbai private hospitals not keen on stocking vaccination doses for children

A girl in the 12-14 category is given a COVID jab at Nair hospital on Thursday. Pic/Ashish Raje

Discouraged by the tepid response to the COVID vaccine for the 12-14 age group, many private hospitals are not keen to stock Corbevax doses for the children. This has prompted the BMC to step up efforts to have about 100 civic vaccination centres for the new age group from Monday. A sharp drop in cases and ongoing exams could be the reason for the poor response, said
officials.

As the inoculation drive for the kids took off on Wednesday, Mumbai had 12 BMC- and government-run vaccination centres. While Biological E, the makers of Corbevax, said that the shots would be available for private facilities within a week, private hospitals didn't appear enthused about the drive.

A nurse prepares to administer a dose of Corbevax to a girl at Nair hospital on Thursday. Pic/Ashish Raje

"We are not going to participate [in the drive] as we can see there is a poor response for the vaccination from parents," said Dr V Ravishankar, CEO of Lilavati Hospital.
As per the BMC, Mumbai has 3.5 lakh to 5.5 lakh children between 12 and 14 years.

"Looking at the city's target teenage population that is still not fully vaccinated, if we purchase the vaccine and no one turns up then it will be a loss for the hospital," Dr Bhupendra Avasthi, CEO and co-founder of Surya Child Care, said, "We have vaccinated around 1 lakh adults and administered around 20,000 doses of Covaxin. But now the response is too low. We are interested but we won't buy huge quantities."

So far, only 557 kids in the 12-14 age group have been vaccinated at the 12 public centres.

A source from Parel-based Wadia hospital for children said, "The fear of COVID is almost negligible among the parents. We didn't get much response for teenagers [15 to 18 years] vaccination. So right now we are not interested in doing vaccination of 12 to 14 years."

Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani said, "We were expecting a low response as many of students are appearing for exams. By Monday, Corbevax will be available in around 100 centres across the city. We are also in touch with schools. If they permit we will conduct camps, too."