The ongoing Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 vaccination drive is being carried out in all states and union territories of India.
In this vaccination drive, the Government of India (GoI) is administering the two India made COVID-19 vaccines.
However, near to 5,000 doses of the two Coronavirus vaccines were wasted in a few states.
Five states including Tripura, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Odisha wasted doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
According to the medical officers of all the aforementioned states, combined wastage of doses is close to 5,000 doses.
Tripura reported the losses to be more than the 10% threshold
The wastage was largely due to vaccinators not finding enough recipients after opening vials. which need to be used up within four hours.
Dr. Kallol Roy, the Immunisation Officer of Tripura said, “So far, 1,623 or 11% of the total vaccine doses were wasted as many beneficiaries were not available during vaccination and droplets fall while shifting it to syringes. Another thing is that we need to use one vial within four hours after which it is of no use.”
Besides Tripura, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Odisha and Bihar also reported wastage of COVAXIN and Covisheild, two India made vaccines.
In Punjab, the State Nodal Officer for vaccine Dr. Rajesh Bhaskar said the wastage number was 1,200 doses.
Dr Rajesh Bhaskar said the overall number was well below the permissible limit of 10%.
Mr. Bhaskar said, “As one vial of the Covishield contains 10 doses, vaccinators have been asked try to give shots of vaccine when there are ten receivers together.”
Health officials in Bihar too said the wastage was within the 10% limit.
However, wastage of the Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech International Private Limited manufactured COVAXIN was more because of its larger vial size as compared to Serum Institute of India (SII) manufactured Covishield.
Meanwhile in Patna (Bihar,) Uttarakhand and Odisha wastage recorded were 25 %, 4.1 % (14, 500 doses) and 0.58 % (1,125) respectively.
Dr Kuldeep Singh Martoliya, Uttarakhand’s immunization confirmed wastage and said, “We have issued instructions to minimise wastage.”
Odisha’s wastage % was confirmed by the Director of Family Welfare, Dr. B.K. Panigrahy.
Speaking about the wastage of COVID-29 doses, Rajesh Bhushan, the Union Health Secretary said, “When we started the COVID-19 vaccination programme, we had factored in a 10% wastage across the country. We have issued very detailed guidelines to the states and UTs about how to avoid wastage of vaccines. We have made our digital platform more flexible and we have permitted that apart from the scheduled hundred people, the person who is handling the vaccination session at a particular site can add additional people as long as they are part of the database.”
On the other hand, states like Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala and Chhattisgarh said there was no wastage.
In addition, till the 28th of January, as many as 25,07,556 beneficiaries have been vaccinated for COVID-19.
The figures were confirmed by the Union Health Ministry on the evening of the 28th of January.
The nationwide vaccination drive which started on the 16th of January, aims to vaccinate 133 crore citizens of India.
The vaccination drive would continue in phased manner starting from healthcare workers, sanitation staff, police personnel, senior citizens and others.
However, pregnant women, people above 80 years and children would not be given the doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
Stay tuned for further updates.
