News Analysis India

Tag: vaccine wastage

  • Over 1.70 crore unutilised COVID-19 vaccine doses still with states, private hospitals, says Centre

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: More than 1.70 crore unutilised COVID-19 vaccine doses are still available with the states, UTs and private hospitals, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday.

    Over 38.18 crore vaccine doses have been provided to states and UTs so far through all sources and a further 23,80,080 doses are in the pipeline.

    Of this, the total consumption including wastage is 36,48,77,756 doses, the ministry said.

    The new phase of universalisation of COVID-19 vaccination commenced from June 21.

  • Reduction in COVID-19 vaccine wastage will ensure enhanced vaccination: Union Health Ministry

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: COVID-19 vaccine is an essential public health commodity with global scarcity and therefore, its wastage must be reduced and kept to a minimum level which will further help inoculate many people, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday.

    Referring to some media reports stating that the ministry’s insistence on keeping vaccine wastage below 1 per cent is unrealistic and undesirable, it said several states have organised vaccination in such a way, that not only there is no wastage but they are able to extract more doses from the vial and thus show a negative wastage.

    “Hence, the expectation that vaccine wastage should be 1 per cent or less is not at all unreasonable. It is reasonable, desirable and achievable,” the ministry said.

    It also said that vaccination against COVID-19 is important in protecting the people from coronavirus infection and associated mortality and morbidity.

    Equitable access to safe and effective vaccines is critical in ending the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “Vaccine development takes a lot of time and demand for these vaccines exceeds the supply many times.

    Thus, it is important to monitor and ensure that this precious tool to address the pandemic should be used optimally and judiciously.

    COVID-19 vaccine is an essential public health commodity with global scarcity.

    Therefore, vaccine wastage must be reduced and kept to a minimum level which will further help vaccinate many people,” the ministry said in its statement.

    It said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also time and again emphasised on ensuring minimum vaccine wastage, to ensure that the vaccine reaches the maximum number of people.

    “Any reduction in wastage means inoculating more people and leads to strengthening the fight against COVID-19.

    Each dose saved means vaccinating one more person,” the statement said.

    India is using the COVID-19 Vaccine Intelligence Network (Co-WIN) with the inbuilt eVIN (Electronic Vaccine intelligence network) system, a digital platform, which not only registers the beneficiaries but also tracks the vaccines and facilitates real-time monitoring of storage temperatures across 29,000 cold chain points at the national, state, and district level.

    The current COVID-19 vaccines being used do not have an ‘open vial policy’ i.e., it has to be used within a stipulated time once the vial has been opened.

    The vaccinator is advised to mark the date and time of opening each vial and all open vaccine vials need to be used/discarded within 4 hours of opening, the statement said.

    Further, all states and union territories have also been advised that each vaccination session is expected to cater to a at least of 100 beneficiaries, however, in the case of remote and sparsely populated areas, the state could organise a session for a lesser number of beneficiaries while ensuring that there is no vaccine wastage, the statement said.

    A session may be planned only when adequate beneficiaries are available.

    The post vaccination observation time is optimally utilized to guide the beneficiaries on COVID appropriate behaviour, any possible Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI), and where they could reach out in case of an adverse event.

    Under any immunization programme, proper micro-planning is essential to ensure that we not only optimally use the available resources but also vaccinate as many beneficiaries to improve coverage.

    The states and union territories are regularly being guided on it, the statement said.

    Additionally, a regular review of the COVID-19 vaccination drive across all levels is being conducted to include analysis of vaccine wastage with a focus on identifying areas where such wastage is high so that prompt corrective measures are undertaken.

    Directions have also been given to the officials concerned and COVID-19 vaccination centre managers to efficiently plan vaccination sessions so as to keep the vaccine wastage rates at a minimum.

  • Jharkhand tops in Covid vaccine wastage; Kerala, West Bengal report negative wastage

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Kerala and West Bengal recorded negative wastage of COVID-19 vaccines in May, saving 1.10 lakh and 1.61 lakh doses respectively, while Jharkhand reported maximum wastage of 33.95 percent, according to government data.

    While Kerala reported -6.37 percent vaccine wastage, West Bengal recorded -5.48 percent.

    Chhattisgarh reported 15.79 percent vaccine wastage while Madhya Pradesh reported 7.35 percent.

    States like Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra reported 7.08 percent, 3.95 percent, 3.91 percent, 3.78 and 3.63 percent and 3.59 percent respectively.

    The data showed that a total of 790.6 lakh vaccines were supplied to states and UTs in May out of which total vaccinations were 610.6 lakh while 658.6 lakh shots were utilised and the closing balance was 212.7 lakh.

    The vaccination in May was less as compared to April in which a total of 898.7 lakh vaccinations were done, 902.2 lakh vaccines were utilised and the closing balance was 80.8 lakh.

    India’s first dose coverage of the 45-plus population till June 7 was pegged at 38 percent with Tripura’s coverage being 92 percent, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh 65 percent each, Gujarat 53 percent, Kerala 51 percent and Delhi 49 percent.

    Tamil Nadu’s first dose coverage of the 45-plus population is at a low of 19 percent, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh at 24 percent each and Bihar at 25 percent.

  • Rajasthan government, opposition BJP lock horns over wastage of COVID vaccine

    Express News Service
    JAIPUR : Political tussle in Rajasthan over vaccine wastage is intensifying. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has refuted allegations made by the BJP of wastage of 11 lakh doses and questioned the data released on the government’s CoWin app.

    The chief minister of the Congress government claimed that the state’s vaccine wastage rate was only two per cent, which is much less than the national average of six per cent. He said the BJP was trying to mislead people.

    Gehlot said in the initial days of the vaccination drive, the entry of 2.95 lakh doses was made twice at many vaccination centres on CoWin, software for tracking the vaccines, due to technical problems.

    ALSO READ | Rajasthan woman wins Covid battle after 28 days on ventilator

    Due to this, the number of vaccines shown on the software was stated to be 17001220, which is not correct. Gehlot stated that earlier in the CoWIN software, the name of the beneficiary was automatically entered.

    If people did not get the vaccine in the coefficient of 10, then the other beneficiary could not have an offline entry, which caused the vaccine to deteriorate. “For this reason, we wrote to the Centre seeking offline registration so that the vaccine is not wasted,” he said.

    Gehlot was apparently responding to the allegations of Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who said that the ‘Rajasthan model’ of combating the pandemic was nothing but Congress mismanagement of the health service. He accused the state government of hiding the fatality and case data and doing politics to blame the Modi government.

    This has been said by other leaders of the opposition also, particularly from the saffron party. Chief Minister Gehlot hit back by saying that the BJP was trying to lower the morale of corona warriors.  “In the virtual conference held on May 21, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had said that there was a technical problem in the Central government portal which showed an increase in the percentage of vaccine wastage,” he said.

  • PM Modi flags Covid vaccine wastage by states; Telangana wasting 17% vaccine doses

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The issue of Covid-19 vaccine wastage by several states above permissible limits figured prominently in a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Ministers on Wednesday in which the PM asked the states to take the matter seriously.

    While 6.5% of vaccine doses are getting wasted in the country on average, there are 3 states where this percentage is near 10 or above with Telangana wasting more than 17 % of all vaccine doses.

    The states, said the PM, needed to immediately correct the drawbacks of planning and governance at the local level to reduce vaccine wastage.

    “It should be reviewed in states that why is the vaccine wastage happening? Monitoring must be done every evening and pro-active people should be contacted so that there’s no wastage,” he stressed.

    In a press briefing later in the day, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan shared details that showed that there are five states where the vaccine wastage percentage is more than the national average.

    These states include Jammu and Kashmir (6.6%), Karnataka (6.9%), Uttar Pradesh (9.4%), Andhra Pradesh (11.6), and Telangana (17.6%). Himachal Pradesh, at 1.4 %, on the other hand, is wasting the least vaccine doses.

    “In the current scenario, Covid-19 vaccine doses should be used very judiciously,” said V K Paul, member (health), Niti Aayog in the briefing.

    ALSO READ | Will have to stop second peak of coronavirus immediately: PM Modi in meeting with CMs

    Talking to this newspaper, sources in the health ministry meanwhile explained that the wastage is happening more in the case of Covaxin, as compared to Covishield.

    “There are two reasons for that, one–there is a higher number of doses per vial in case of Covaxin and as all doses have to be administered within four hours of a vial being opened that naturally means that doses which are not used within those hours get wasted,” said an official. 

    “Secondly, before the efficacy data for Covaxin was announced, fewer people were turning up at centers administering this vaccine s resulting in vaccine wastage,” said an official.

    Another official confirmed that across states, more wastage is being seen in the case of Covaxin as each of its vial contains 20 doses, unlike Covishield vials that have 10 doses each.

    Meanwhile, the authorities at the Centre also dismissed claims by some states that sufficient Covid-19 doses are not being supplied.

    “Since the beginning of the vaccination drive, 7.54 crore doses have been sent to the states while half of it has been administered so far, so these allegations are baseless,” said Bhushan, in response to a query on the statement by West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee. Banerjee had said that the vaccine supply from the Centre has been “inadequate”.