Vaccine wastage dips in Haryana
FROM 9.43% IN JANUARY-END THE STATE’S WASTAGE HAS COME DOWN TO 5.65%
Over three months after the start of anticoronavirus vaccination drive, Haryana’s average vaccine wastage has come down to 5.65% from the 9.43% reported in January-end.
Additional chief secretary (ACS), health, Rajeev Arora said that their vaccine wastage is much below the programmatic wastage of 10% allowed by the Union ministry of health.
“The wastage has been declining here. It came down to 8.30% in February, 6.09% till April 9 and is at 5.65% by April 20,” the ACS said. Arora said that the vaccine wastage data is sourced from the electronic vaccine intelligence network (e-Vin) portal.
“Till April 20, the state has vaccinated 33,47,548 people against total vaccine consumption of 35,48,130. Thus, the consumption is 94.35%,” he said.
“E-Vin is data source for calculating consumption. The data source of coverage is taken as per actual reported coverage of vaccination reported by districts on daily-basis at state headquarters in Chandigarh. The portal gives actual consumption in real time. The Union health ministry is taking consumption data from e-Vin but considering Co-WIN data source for coverage,” the ACS said on discrepancy in state and central data.
The ACS said that maximum vaccine wastage was in Covaxin, which has 10ml vials (20 doses). However, the new Covaxin vials are expected to be of 5ml (10 doses) and this will further reduce the wastage, he said.
Meanwhile, the state government on Wednesday constituted a committee of three officers to examine the new vaccine policy announced by the central government and suggest a roadmap for achieving maximum vaccination in light of ‘vaccination for all’ starting from May 1.
The committee — comprising Haryana Medical Systems Corporation managing director Saket Kumar, NHM mission director Prabhjot Singh, and director general health services Dr Veena Singh — has been asked to submit its report by Thursday.
Under the new policy, vaccine manufacturers will supply 50% of their monthly Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) released doses to Centre and will be free to supply the remaining 50% doses to state governments and in the open market.