As fewer people turn up for jabs, vial wastage worries Haryana officials

ROHTAK/KARNAL/AMBALA: As many as 32 Covishield vaccine doses of total 110 have reportedly gone to waste in the first two days of the vaccination drive at Rohtak’s Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences as just 78 selected frontline workers appeared to get a jab.

Three session sites have been formed at the PGIMS with a daily target of 300 vaccines. On the first day, 63 workers of the selected 300 got vaccinated and eight vials were opened, accounting for vaccine wastage of nearly 20%.

The PGIMS reported 50% vaccine wastage on Tuesday as only 15 of the selected 300 people turned up for which three Covishield vials containing 5ml vaccine each (each containing 10 doses) were opened, causing a loss of 15 doses.

Dr Ramesh Verma, co-investigator of the clinical trials at PGIMS, said that they have reported 30% wastage of the vaccine in the first two days of the vaccination drive.

Dr Rajesh Kumar, nodal officer for Covid-19 in Bhiwani, said that they are reporting vaccine wastage of 10% and are opening vials after counting people in queues.

Jhajjar principal medical officer Sanjay Dahiya said that they have given jabs to 792 persons in the first two days.

In Karnal, authorities have issued strict instructions to ground level officials to avoid wastage of Covid vaccine.

“Generally, officers open a vial after ensuring that they have the required number of people (10 people for one vial of Covishield) at the centre for vaccination,” said Karnal chief medical officer Yogesh Sharma.

But if the required number of people are not present, the officers avoid opening a vaccine vial and wait until the number of people reaches 10, he added.

On possibility of vaccine wastage, Ambala civil surgeon Dr Kuldeep Singh said, “Taking due care for any such situation, our staff opens a vial of the vaccine only when there are five to six beneficiaries lined up.