Hyderabad: The Telangana state government on Friday (April 30th) halted the supply of Covid vaccines to all private hospitals in Telangana that were previously involved in administering vaccines to people over the age of 45.

The State government has also urged private hospital executives to return any unused Covid vaccine vials, in accordance with Ministry of Health and Family Welfare guidelines on Liberalized Pricing and Accelerated National Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy.

Private Covid vaccination centres can no longer administer Covid vaccinations to people over the age of 45 as of May 1st. However, government vaccination clinics, on the other hand, will continue to provide free Covid vaccines to healthcare staff, frontline workers, and people over the age of 45.

Private clinics, on the other hand, must obtain Covid vaccine doses directly from vaccine manufacturers beginning Saturday. At this time, private hospitals in Hyderabad are still in the process of finalizing their discussions with manufacturers and deciding on the cost of each vaccine dose.

“When a programme of such a large magnitude is taken up there is going to be uncertainty for a couple of days before things settle down. It is important to get vaccinated as soon as the vaccine is available. Vaccines from government channel and private channel will become available although there may be a delay of one or two days. People must register on COWIN application and wait their turn for vaccination instead of crowding vaccination centres,” Dr. K Hari Prasad, president of the Apollo Group of Hospitals, said.

The MOHFW has made it mandatory for all vaccine manufacturers to supply 50% of their monthly doses to the Government of India in order to ensure that priority groups such as healthcare staff, frontline workers, and individuals over 45 years are vaccinated as soon as possible and at no cost at government vaccine centres. State governments and private hospitals are free to purchase the remaining 50% of vaccine doses from private vaccine manufacturers.

Individuals over the age of 18 in Hyderabad have been advised by senior public health officials and private hospital executives to register on COWIN and wait for the cost and supply of vaccines to be negotiated between them and manufacturers.