Over 23 lakhs Covid-19 Vaccine Doses Wasted in India: Why It Happened And How It Can Be Fixed
Over 7 crore vaccine doses have been provided by the Centre to states so far, out of which out which more than 3.46 crore vaccine doses have been administered. Till date, around 6.5% of Covid vaccines have gone to waste according to health officials. Over 23 lakh vaccine doses wasted.
The Centre has asked states to encourage optimum utilisation of vaccines and to significantly curtail squandering after India witnessed a vaccine wastage of 6.5%.
Each Covishield vial has 10 doses in total, while a Covaxin vial contains 20 doses — each dose being 0.5 ml (for one person). Once opened, all doses have to be administered within four hours, otherwise, it goes to waste and the remaining doses have to be destroyed. The vaccine wastage in India can be largely be attributed to low turnout beneficiaries turning up to get vaccinated.
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Since the vaccines need to be utilised within four hours of being opened, it is vital for vaccinators to coordinate the flow of beneficiaries.
Dr Suresh Kumar, medical director of LNJP Hospital, the only government hospital in Delhi that is vaccinating 24*7, said, ‘For example if we open up a vial in the evening around 6:00 pm and two people get vaccinated after that because of low turn out of beneficiaries, we are forced to destroy the rest of the right doses.’
‘Single-dose vials are not cost-effective and have packaging and transportation issues. These vaccines are manufactured for masses. So, we need more and more people to be coming in to get inoculated,’ he added.
