Over 200 private vaccination centres in Bengal, most of them small units, were finally allotted doses but they were not sure when they would get the consignments because a central norm stood in their way of paying for the jabs till Wednesday night.

The state government had asked all private healthcare units to submit their demands for June and July, which it would send to the vaccine manufacturers through the Centre. The state government received the allocation list for June on Monday and sent it to the vaccination centres on Tuesday.

“We had submitted a demand for around 16.5 lakh doses of Covishield and about 3.6 lakh doses of Covaxin for the private units for June. But the Centre has sanctioned only around 8.4 lakh doses of Covishield and no Covaxin for June,” a senior official of the state health department said on Wednesday.

Some private hospitals have received approvals for July, too, but the number of doses has not been specified, officials of the hospitals said.

However, even after receiving the allotments, the private centres could not make payments.

“An official of the Union health ministry has told us that the immunisation officer of every district has to approve and identify the vaccination centres and the exact allotments. Only after that will the vaccination centres be allowed to pay the manufacturers through the health ministry portal. We expect the issue to be resolved by Thursday night,” said the state health department official.

The Sun Hospital in Burdwan has received an allotment of 2,000 doses of Covishield for June.

“We had been trying to get the doses but there was no response from the manufacturers. But we are unable to make the payment now, despite the allotment,” said Sk Alhajuddin, the owner of the nursing home and also chairman of Progressive Nursing Homes and Hospitals Association.

According to the health department official, the state government had sent the demands on June 15 and had to make several requests to the Centre for the allotments.

The Telegraph has reported that many private hospitals and diagnostic centres that cannot afford to order doses in bulk were not able to procure doses after the Centre made it mandatory for private centres to purchase vaccines directly from manufacturers from May 1.

“The state government’s initiative will help private hospitals procure more doses. Till now, we were procuring doses centrally, through our headquarters, but now it can be done locally as well. We have received an allotment for 9,500 doses of Covishield for June,” said R. Venkatesh, regional director, east, Narayana Health, which runs the RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences.

Narayan Memorial Hospital in Behala has been informed that it will get Covaxin and Sputnik V in July.

“But the list does not mention the number of doses. We are waiting for it,” said Suparna Sengupta, the CEO of the hospital.