PSUs take the lead in Covid vaccination but shortage hits remote locations

Mega infrastructure public sector undertakings (PSUs) that have the bulk of their operations in remote areas of the country have started Covid vaccination for their employees, though vaccine shortage could upset their drive.

Power major NTPC has vaccinated close to 70,000 of its employees in the country — from its headquarters in Delhi to thermal power stations in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh.

The company is vaccinating the dependent family members of its staff, the contractual staff, and also workers at its joint ventures and subsidiaries, said an NTPC spokesperson.

While this is one of the larger-scale vaccinations, the drive faces delays and pauses due to shortages of vaccines, especially in remote areas. While in metro towns, NTPC has joined hands with Apollo Hospitals for vaccines, in remote locations, it is dependent on supplies by the state government and distributed to government-owned health centres.

A similar challenge is faced by another PSU that operates in far-off locations — mining behemoth Coal India Ltd (CIL).

“To date, CIL has vaccinated around 100,000 front line workers of 45 years and above operating in its coalfields including their dependants and contractual workers. Vaccines are being sourced from state governments where the coal companies operate,” said the company’s spokesperson.

A CIL executive pointed out in several areas access to vaccines and convincing local workers to get vaccinated were a challenge.

“We are getting vaccines from the quota of state governments, which anyway are receiving less than their demand. We are hoping more vaccines are allocated to us as we are front line staff and mining workers are very vulnerable,” he said.

India has so far administered more than 180 million vaccine doses, which is 12.97 per cent of its population. Several states have raised concern over shortages in vaccine supply. The Central government has said it will supply around 19.2 million doses to states and Union Territories (UTs) during the fortnight of May 16-31. This will include 16.2 million doses of Covishield and 2.9 million of Covaxin.

Air India, which planned to vaccinate front line workers on May 12, postponed the drive, citing “unavailability”. The drive started during the weekend and the airline is hopeful of vaccinating all its pilots by the end of the month.

Now some PSUs are directly tying up with both governments and private hospitals rather than depend on government supply or planning to procure vaccines on their own.

A senior executive with a major steel sector PSU said they were in plans “to have a tie-up with producers to vaccinate the 18-44”. While the plan is yet to take shape, the person said their demand was being met through central and state government supplies and they did not have any tie-ups.

“Vaccine supplies are there but sometimes there is a supply glitch and then the vaccination exercise is restarted. It is an ongoing process,” said the executive.

Oil exploration major ONGC has said it has tied up with “reputed hospitals” to hold vaccination camps in its offices.

“Sourcing, transportation, vaccination, etc. are being done through hospitals. Only those hospitals are being contracted who have the required vaccination inventory,” said a spokesperson for ONGC, adding that the company has vaccinated 39,000 of its staff.

IndianOil which is sponsoring the vaccination of around 420,000 contract workers, retail outlet pump attendants, delivery persons, tank-truck crew along with its 32,000 employees, said it was organising vaccination camps at its office sites in association with private and government hospitals at local levels.