Doses wasted in more states over hesitancy

NEW DELHI/PATNA/CHENNAI: Authorities in at least six states on Wednesday said that doses of coronavirus vaccines are going to waste because people are not turning up, underscoring a persistent vaccine hesitancy problem in the country that may now impact inventories stockpiled in the millions.

India’s start to the Covid-19 vaccination programme has been one of the strongest in the world, reaching more people on its first day than any other country. By 6pm on Wednesday, 786,842 people were inoculated in the 14,119 sessions held since the launch on January 16, Union health ministry data showed.

But this still translates to a cumulative coverage rate of 55% — every day, 100 people are selected and invited for shots for each session, and on average roughly 45 of them are not turning up.

Experts have called for opening up access to more people that just health care workers — perhaps even to the general public — if targets are not being met.

To address the problem thrown up by vaccine hesitancy, the government on Tuesday tweaked the digital platform to allow willing health workers (who have been selected as initial beneficiaries) to take doses even if they were not scheduled to, and on Wednesday, it decided to hand out provisional firstdose certificates.

But, as on Wednesday, the numbers were yet to pick up in any significant manner. According to preliminary government figures, the turnout for the day was approximately 65%.

This, officials in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Bihar and Assam said, was leading to doses being wasted since vials need to be used up within four hours once opened, and each vial contains 10 (in the case of Covishield) or 20 (for Covaxin) doses.