Govt sets monthly cap for vaccine stock in private hospitals, orders only via CoWIN

New Delhi: Come July 1, private hospitals will be required to place orders for Covid vaccine orders via CoWIN and cannot buy doses directly from manufacturers, the government said on Tuesday.

Apart from this, the government also imposed a cap, or a “maximum limit”, on the number of doses a private hospital can order for a given month, in order to balance limited supply and prevent wastage.

According to the formula devised by the Centre, the maximum vaccine stock a private hospital can procure is double their average daily consumption of vaccine doses in any seven-day period during the previous month. Hospitals can pick a week of their choice to derive the daily average and place orders. The details will be taken from the CoWin site.

In the case of hospitals joining the vaccination drive for the first time, maximum limit will be worked out based on number of hospital beds available.

The SOP document says private vaccination centres can place orders in four instalments in a month.

All private hospitals will enter required details into the CoWIN database that will then aggregate district- and state-wise demand before passing the information on to the manufacturers.

No prior approval from government authorities will be necessary.