New Delhi: Private hospitals will no longer be allowed to directly procure COVID-19 vaccines from manufacturers from July 1. They will have to place orders on the Centre’s CoWIN portal.
All private hospitals have to register on CoWIN as a Private COVID Vaccination Centre (PCVC) to participate in the aggregation mechanism. Most hospitals have already registered on the portal.
“States and UTs will be informed by MoHFW, about the total quantum of doses available or private CVCs in a month for them. They will aggregate the demand from private CVCs, keeping these quantities in mind,” said a statement from the Union Health Ministry.
There will be no need for approval from the government. Successful submission of the procurement orders on the government portal will suffice. The Union health ministry will facilitate the supply of these vaccines to the private hospitals after payment is made electronically through the NHA portal.
“The likely monthly consumption shall be estimated by multiplying the daily average consumption during the week of the choice of the Private CVC (PCVC) in the previous month by 30. For example, if for a PCVC, while submitting the order for the month of July 2021, the 7 day period selected by the PCVC is 10 June to 16 June and in that period, if 630 doses are reflected on CoWIN as administered, the daily average number of doses will be 630/7 i.e 90. Hence, the Maximum Order Quantity (MOQ) for the month of July 2021 = 90 x 30 x 2 = 5,400.”
What hospitals have to follow
* PCVCs can place orders for Covishield or Covaxin in up to four instalments.