Only 13 of the 450-odd private hospitals empanelled for administering vaccine against the Covid-19 virus to senior citizens and middle-aged people with comorbid conditions have started the inoculation process in Jharkhand, officials spearheading the immunisation programme said on Tuesday, claiming that the number of private hospitals providing vaccine jabs in the state will gradually increase as the training process gains momentum.
“We organised training sessions for healthcare workers in private hospitals on February 27 and 28 for the second phase of the immunization programme that started on March 1. However, the training process is still underway, and many more private hospitals will start administering vaccine jabs in the days to come,” said the immunization officer of Jharkhand, Dr Ajit Prasad.
Kumar added that as of now, only two private hospitals in Ranchi were administering paid vaccine jabs to senior citizens and people above the age of 45 years suffering from some or the other comorbid condition. “Raj Hospital and Bhagwan Mahavir Medica Superspecialty Hospital have started inoculating people who register for the second phase of the vaccination programme in Ranchi,” said Prasad.
On day 1 of the second phase of vaccination, as many as 914 senior citizens and 129 middle-agers with comorbid conditions were inoculated in the state. However, a majority of the beneficiaries got the vaccine jab at government healthcare facilities, health officials said.
On Tuesday — day 2 of the second phase of vaccination — only Raj Hospital and Medica Superspecialty Hospital provided paid vaccine jabs to Ranchi residents. Around 100 senior citizens were administered the first dose of the vaccine at Medica on the day, while 100 people got the jab at Raj Hospital.
The 13 private hospitals that started administering the vaccine to senior citizens on Tuesday were spread in Ranchi, East Singbhum, Dhanbad and Bokaro, sources from the health department said. Sources from private hospitals said that technical glitches in the Co-Win 2.0 mobile app also caused delay in starting the vaccination programme in private hospitals.
As per government data, more than 3 lakh people have been administered the first dose of the Covishield vaccine in Jharkhand so far. Besides, around 30,000 people have also been administered the second dose of the vaccine 28 days after they got the first jab. In the first phase of the immunization, which started on January 16, the government inoculated only healthcare workers and frontline workers.