Private hospitals no longer allowed to directly procure COVID-19 vaccines from manufacturers

Starting July 1, private hospitals in the country will no longer be allowed to directly procure COVID-19 vaccines from manufacturers and 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, sources stated.”States and UTs will be informed by MoHFW, about the total quantum of doses available for private CVCs in a month for them. They will aggregate the demand from private CVCs, keeping these quantities in mind,” a statement from the Union health ministry said.There will be no need for approval from the government. Successful submission of the procurement orders on the government portal will be sufficient. 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. The maximum limit will be twice this quantity,” the instructions read.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.This process has already started. The following refinements in the process to be followed by the hospitals for procurement and supply of vaccines will come into effect from July 1.PCVCs can place orders for Covishield or Covaxin in up to four instalments and payment should be made within three days of placement of orders, accepted only through electronic or digital mode, the SOP specified.Aggregation of demand will be done only for the Serum Institute’s Covisheild and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.