320 doses of Covaxin stolen from hospital in Jaipur

A batch of 320 doses of Bharat Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine, Covaxin, was stolen from a hospital in Jaipur on Wednesday. 32 vials of Covaxin were stolen on way to the vaccine centre from the cold storage.

A vial of the Covaxin contains 10 doses of the vaccine. 32 vials contained 320 doses of the vaccine that went missing during transit.

The incident took place at the Kanwatiya Hospital in Shastri Nagar of Jaipur. The hospital superintendent has registered a case with the police.

Chief Medical Officer Narottam Sharma said, "320 doses have gone missing from the hospital. We have sought a probe into the incident and have lodged a case with the police."

"We were shocked to see that 320 vaccine doses have gone missing from the hospital," said the hospital official.

Last week, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot raised a hue and cry over vaccine shortage in the state and said Rajasthan has insufficient stocks to carry on with the vaccination drive.

Ashok Gehlot had said that the number of Covid-19 doses available in Rajasthan is insufficient to carry on vaccination and the drive will have to be stopped in many districts.

He also said that the Centre’s claim of no shortage of Covid-19 vaccines in the country is wrong and demanded that a status report on the availability of doses be made public.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan has become the second state after Maharashtra to administer more than 10 million doses of the vaccine. Till Sunday, 99.83 lakh doses were administered and the figure has crossed the 10 million mark now.

Report by Chetali S M
Reported on – 14/04/2021