1,280 VACCINE SHOTS GO WASTE IN PUNJAB IN A WEEK
State health officials say health workers are missing their turns to get inoculated
As many as 1,280 doses of Covishield vaccine went to waste in Punjab during the first week of the vaccination drive as the health workers did not turn up at the session sites to take the shots.
As per the data from health department, nearly 2,261 vials of the vaccine were opened across the state in a week, from January 16 to January 22, as part of the vaccination drive. Each vial contains ten doses for inoculation. However, of the 22,610 vaccine doses available, nearly 21,330 doses were administered to the beneficiaries.
AMRITSAR: As many as 1,280 doses of Covishield vaccine went to waste in Punjab during the first week of the vaccination drive as the health workers did not turn up at the session sites to take the shots.
As per the data from state health department, nearly 2,261 vials of the vaccine were opened across the state in a week, from January 16 to January 22, as part of the vaccination drive. Each vial contains ten doses for inoculation. However, of the 22,610 vaccine doses available from the 2,261 vials, nearly 21,330 doses were administered to the beneficiaries while the remaining 1,280 doses got wasted. The vaccine wastage accounted for 6% of the total doses used.
As per health officials, more vaccine wastage was witnessed in Moga, Ferozepur, Fazilka and Kapurthala districts.
Dr Rajesh Bhaskar, nodal officer for Covid-19 in Punjab, said the health department is reporting vaccine wastage of 6%.
“The vaccine doses in the vial can only be inoculated within four hours of its opening, after which the remaining quantity is rendered useless. Wastage is being reported as health workers are still showing reluctance in taking the shots. We have directed the district officials to open the vaccine vials only after counting 10 beneficiaries in the queues so that the wastage can be avoided,” Dr Bhaskar said, adding that we are also ensuring proper storage of vaccine in required temperatures at cold chains to avoid loss due to storage issues.
Patiala civil surgeon Dr Satinder Singh said, “In Patiala, the vaccine wastage is less than 1% as we are holding less inoculation sessions. If vaccine will be available at many locations in the district, the number of beneficiaries coming at each site will be limited and vaccine will get wasted. Also, we ensure that first vaccine vial is opened at 9am as it can then be used by 1pm. After that, we open other vials only after counting the beneficiaries in the queue.”
“Also, if only three to four beneficiaries are lined up at the vaccination sites after 4pm, we ask them to visit the health centre next morning for taking the vaccine, just to avoid the wastage,” he added.
In Amritsar, vaccine was inoculated to 865 health workers at 21 locations on Saturday. However, due to more number of vaccine sites, doses got wasted in huge quantity.
Nearly, seven doses each got wasted at Ranjit Avenue and Mustafabad health centres; five doses each at Omparkash hospital and Baba Bakala health centre; and many more. In total, 56 doses got wasted in Amritsar on Saturday.
The state health department figures till Sunday evening show that it had vaccinated 31326 health workers, against the target of 80,337.
Two more die of Covid, 200 new cases in state
Chandigarh Punjab reported two more coronavirus fatalities and 200 fresh cases on Sunday, pushing the overall figures to 5,555 deaths and 1,71,930 infections, officials said.
There are 2,256 active Covid-19 cases in the state now, according to a medical bulletin.
Among the fresh infections, Mohali reported 35 cases, Faridkot 28 and Ludhiana 26.
A total of 232 coronavirus patients were discharged in a 24-hour period after recovering from the infection, taking the number of recoveries to 1,64,119, as per the bulletin.
As many as 10 patients are on ventilator support while 63 are on oxygen support, the bulletin said. A total of 43,66,353 samples have been collected for testing so far in the state, it said.