COVID-19 vaccination drive in Delhi dull, only 53% healthcare workers turn up; RML docs request Covishield

The COVID-19 vaccination drive across hospitals in Delhi can only be described as lacklustre. Of the 8,100 healthcare workers who were to get vaccinated in the Capital, only 53% (4,319) turned up. In most of the prominent Central and Delhi government hospitals, just about 30% of the health workers turned up for either Serum Institute of India’s Covishield or Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.

This dry response came even though there were a slew of vaccination promotions from the Central government, health ministry and the state government. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched India’s COVID-19 vaccination drive through a virtual address in what has been termed the world’s largest inoculation exercise against coronavirus.

According to sources, there has been one instance of severe adverse reaction to the vaccination and 50 instances of minor reactions. It is yet to be seen how many health workers will get vaccinated in the next two weeks.

This is line with what National Herald had reported a day before the massive vaccination drive on January 16 that less than less than 30% of health workers (doctors, nurses, lab technicians and paramedical staff) in six government-run hospitals in Delhi have agreed to be vaccinated.

At central Delhi-based Lok Nayak Hospital, 103 people were on the list sent from the district authorities for vaccination. However, only 32 of them turned up. Health workers at LN Hospital were supposed to get Covishield vaccine. This vaccine has been developed by Oxford University and pharma major AstraZeneca and is produced in India by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India.

The first woman who was supposed to get vaccinated did not turn up even though the hospital authorities said they would send a vehicle to pick and drop her. She refused. The second woman also did not reach in time. Eventually, it was Biji Tomy, a nursing officer with the Oncology department, who was given the first vaccine shot at LNH Hospital.

“Most of us are going to wait for a couple of months to see if there will be any adverse reactions. And then we will decide. We would like to see if those who were inoculated will get COVID-19 in a few weeks. The government has decided to administer the second dose of Covishield vaccine after four weeks. That leads to an efficacy of 53%. If our politicians and scientists are so sure, let them lead by example,” said a health worker at the hospital.

At Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, also under the Delhi government, only 38 of the 102 health workers turned up to get vaccinated. While the numbers are not known of those vaccinated at the Delhi State Cancer Institute, sources said most people opted out here too. Dr Pragya Shukla was the first doctor to get vaccinated here with Covishield.

At Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, under the Central government, of the 103 health workers on the list to be vaccinated on the first day, only 34 agreed to take the vaccination. At RML Hospital, health workers were supposed to get Covaxin.

Adding to this, the Residents Doctors Association wrote a letter demanding Covishield vaccine and not Covaxin since the former has completed all three stages of trials in the United Kingdom. The vaccine manufactured by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is still undergoing phase-III trials.

In a letter to the medical superintendent, the RDA wrote, “Covaxin manufactured by Bharat Biotech is being preferred over Covishield manufactured by Serum Institute in our hospital. We would like to bring to your notice that the residents are a bit apprehensive about the lack of complete trial in the case of Covaxin and might not participate in huge numbers thus defeating the purpose of the vaccination.”

“Most doctors have not volunteered for the vaccination drive. We are apprehensive about Covaxin,” said Dr Nirmalaya Mohapatra, RDA vice-president of RML hospital.

All those who were to be administered Covaxin were required to sign consent form as the vaccine “has been allowed by the government in clinical trial mode”. The form stated that the clinical efficacy of Covaxin is yet to be determined and it is still being studied in phase 3 clinical trials.

“In Phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials, Covaxin has demonstrated the ability to produce antibodies against COVID-19. Hence it is important to appreciate that receiving the vaccine does not mean that other precautions related to COVID-19 need not be followed. The Central Licensing Authority has granted permission for the sale or distribution of Covaxin for restricted use in emergency situation in public interest,” stated the consent form.

The company’s consent form also underscores that in case of any adverse event, the person would be provided medically recognised care and compensation for serious adverse events would be paid by Bharat Biotech. The recipients were also handed a fact sheet and a form to report adverse effects, in which they have to note down any adverse symptoms.

Earlier, the Drug Controller General of India had stated that Bharat Biotech vaccine would be used in clinical trial mode, a term which most virologists said they did not understand.

It must be remembered that though Covishield has undergone Phase I, II and III clinical trials abroad, in India SII and ICMR are conducting Phase II/III trials at 15 locations in the country as bridging studies. Covishield was recommended for emergency use on January 1, 2020, and still needs to provide Indian data to authorities to prove immunogenicity and efficacy.

At All India Institute of Medical Sciences too, which is under the central government, there was lacklustre response due to the reason that Covaxin was meant to be administered. Until 11.15 am, none of those on the list turned up to be vaccinated.

As a part of building confidence about the vaccine, AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Singh Guleria and NITI Aayog member VK Paul were administered the Covaxin vaccine shot. The first person to get the shot at AIIMS was 34-year-old support staff Manish Kumar. He said he had requested for the vaccination as most of his colleagues whose names were on the list opted out.

Of the prominent central government Hospitals in the Capital, the better turnout rate was at Safdarjung Hospital where 65 people of the 102 on the list showed up for the vaccination. Here too they had struggled to get the numbers the day before.

“On January 14, 15, the hospital and district authorities called all those who had registered to turn up for the vaccination on January 16. However, most people did not respond to the calls, a few said they were not in Delhi and the rest opted out. Then, the district authorities prepared a new list, which was sent to the hospital on Saturday morning. Of these, 65 turned up,” said a health care worker at the hospital. The person was involved in the vaccination drive on Saturday.

The vaccination exercise was conducted at 81 sites across all the 11 districts in Delhi. Six central government hospitals — AIIMS, Safdarjung Hospital, RML Hospital, Kalawati Saran Children Hospital and two ESI hospitals — are part of the drive.

Besides LN Hospital, Delhi-government run GTB Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital, DDU Hospital, BSA Hospital, Delhi State Cancer Institute, ILBS Hospital are among the vaccination sites. Private hospitals such as Max Hospital, Fortis Hospital, Apollo Hospital and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital are also part of the vaccination drive.

On Saturday, Delhi recorded 299 fresh COVID-19 cases and six deaths. With this, the infection tally in the city stood at 6.32 lakh and the death count at 10,738. On January 15, the city had recorded 295 cases, the lowest in more than eight months.