The state government will not be able to include private hospitals as extensions of government-run Covid vaccination centres, officials said on Monday.

Such inclusion would have enabled around 1.5 lakh people who have taken the first dose at private hospitals to choose between government and private facilities for their second dose, officials said on Monday.

Some private hospitals in Calcutta, which had failed to procure vaccine doses directly from the manufacturers despite several attempts, had on Saturday requested the state government to continue supplying second doses to them like before and use the private units as extensions of government facilities.

The private hospitals said they were receiving hundreds of calls every day from recipients whose second dose is due. Many of those callers are refusing to go to government facilities and want to wait till private hospitals procure doses.

The recipients, many of whom are elderly people, apprehend they have to stand in long queues at government vaccination centres.

At a meeting on Monday, the state government told the private hospitals that it would not be possible to provide doses to them because of technical reasons. Nor is it possible to treat the private hospitals as extensions of government vaccination sites.

The private hospitals, which used to receive doses from the state government till April 30, have been asked to procure vaccines directly from the manufacturers. However, most hospitals in Calcutta have been unable to do so.

“The government of India's directive makes it impossible for us to allow private hospitals to be extensions of our sites or to supply them vaccine doses. The Centre has said private facilities will have to get the supplies from the manufacturers,” said a state government official.

According to the private hospitals, around 1.5 lakh people who have taken their first dose at their vaccine clinics are awaiting their second jabs.

“We had proposed to the government to allow us to be extensions of their sites to take off the burden on government facilities. However, the state government has told us it was not possible for them to supply doses to us because of technical reasons. So, now there is no solution to the problem,” said Rupak Barua, the president of Association of Hospitals of Eastern India and the group CEO of AMRI Hospitals.

He said AMRI Hospitals were in touch with the two Covid vaccine manufacturers — Bharat Biotech, which produces Covaxin, and the Serum Institute of India, the manufacturer of Covishield.

“We have placed an order of one lakh doses of Covaxin. But Serum Institute is not accepting any order. The company is telling us that they have a huge pending order from the government of India,” said Barua.

AMRI Hospitals has around 23,000 recipients of second dose awaiting for the jab, about 70 per cent of whom have got Covishield as the first dose.

Peerless Hospital has 3,000 recipients on the waiting list.

“We are getting hundreds of calls every day and most want to wait till we get doses. But we are not getting any assurance from either manufacturer about supply,” said Sudipta Mitra, the chief executive of Peerless Hospital.

Woodlands Hospital and Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals are the only two private hospitals which have procured vaccines from the manufacturers.