Covishield stock in kitty, booster drive back in Maharashtra | Pune News – Times of India

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PUNE: Booster drives with the Covishield vaccine have resumed in the state after fresh stock, of nearly 3.5 lakh doses, arrived this week.
According to data, more than 5 crore adults in the state are yet to take their boosters. But officials were unable to widen Covishield third-dose coverage due to the shortage.
Covishield has been the lead vaccine in many districts. Many continue to prefer it as their third dose as well, despite the mixed-dose regimen, officials said.
State immunisation officer, Dr Sachin Desai, said the state may ask the Centre for more doses, but only if the response is good.
“We already have ample stock of Covaxin and now with the Covishield resupply, our vaccination drives have resumed. The new doses were distributed earlier this week,” he said.
When asked about the unavailability of Corbevax, which can be used as a heterologous booster dose for either Covishield or Covaxin, Dr Desai said the state hasn’t placed an order for the shot as response has been weak.
Availability of Covishield led to relatively better turnouts at vaccination centres in the state. More than 4,000 people got their doses on Wednesday – the number was less than 3,000 at the start of the week.
Dr Suryakant Devkar, chief immunisation officer of the PMC, said the civic body received 12,000 doses.
“We distributed the stock between 21 vaccination centres. We will check the response before ordering more,” he said.
In Pimpri Chinchwad, the medical department of the PCMC, which had stopped Covid vaccinations, sent out a press release stating both Covishield and Covaxin would now be available at eight of their centres from Wednesday.
Experts have urged citizens to take boosters, considering Covid spikes continue to occur in some countries.

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