‘5K doses wasted in 5 states so far’

NEW DELHI: Close to 5,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines have been wasted in some states since the vaccination drive began on January 16, data from five states suggests, with at least one – Tripura – reporting the losses to be more than the 10% threshold that the government has identified as possibly unavoidable due to the scale of the drive.

The wastages have largely been due to vaccinators not finding enough recipients after opening vials, which need to be used up within four hours. The problem is particularly hard to avoid since the two vaccines approved in India for use come in vials of 10 or 20 doses.

“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,” said Dr Kallol Roy, Tripura’s immunisation officer. Since January 16, only about 55 people have turned up for every 100 selected and invited for a dose during every session.

On Thursday, this number was – on an average – 49 out of every 100 in the close 500,000 vaccinations that took place.

“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,” said Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan. In Punjab, this number was 1,200 doses, as per the state’s nodal officer for Covid-19, Dr Rajesh Bhaskar. He said the overall number was well below the permissible limit of 10%. “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,” he said. The state conducts vaccination four days a week and no shots were given on Wednesday.

Health officials in Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala and Chhattisgarh said there was no wastage.