Parents are worried about expired doses

Many pvt. schools have tied up with hospitals for drive

Many private schools have tied up with hospitals to conduct vaccination drives on campuses. However, some parents are apprehensive about getting their children vaccinated amidst fears that Covaxin doses have expired and re-labelled by the manufacturer, Bharat Biotech. Shruthi S., whose daughter studies in Class X in a private school, said they are worried after hearing that Bharat Biotech had informed private hospitals that the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had extended the shelf life of Covaxin doses to 12 months from the date of manufacture.

Another parent of a first year PU college student said that she would not allow her daughter to be vaccinated at her college. Instead, the family plans to get the vaccine administered at a private hospital after checking the date of manufacture.

The State Government has instructed private hospitals that vaccines should not be utilised beyond the expiry date mentioned on the label of each vial.

Meanwhile, schools that have tied up with private hospitals to conduct vaccine drives on campus, said they will gauge the response on Monday.

Mansoor Ali Khan, member, Board of Management, Delhi Public School, said that they would begin the drive on Monday and had tied up with a private hospital for their programme. “We will have to wait and see how the response is tomorrow,” he said.

D. Shashi Kumar, general secretary, Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, said that they would wait for the Government to roll out the vaccination drive. “We will wait till the Government comes to our schools as we don’t want to put the burden on parents. Health centres have already started collecting data of students” he said.

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