COVID-19 Vaccination Hesitancy Causes Dose Wastage in Many States
As per reports of the authorities of many states, coronavirus vaccine doses are going waste as people are not showing up for the vaccination programme. According to the Health Ministry, ever since the Indian vaccination programme commenced, about 786,842 people have been vaccinated in the 14,119 sessions on Wednesday, up to 6pm. However, analysis says that if 100 people are being selected and invited for Covid-19 vaccination shots for each session, on an average about 45 of them are not turning up. As a result, experts have expressed the need for opening up access to more people than just health care workers, even to the general public, if the desired targets are not being fulfilled.
It is to be noted that the government is in thoughts of allowing the willing health workers to get vaccinated if they were not scheduled to. Moreover, handing out of provisional first-dose certificates was also considered.
According to officials in Maharashtra, Haryana, Bihar, Assam, and Tamil Nadu, many doses being wasted since vials should be used up within a span of four hours after being opened, where each vial contains 20 (for Covaxin) and 10 (for Covishield) doses. In addition, officials in Delhi informed that according to their estimate at least 1,000 doses were wasted across the national Capital as opened vials had to be discarded for vaccination of enough recipients.
Punjab, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh state governments reported negligible wastage of doses. As per immunisation officials in Uttarakhand, facilities in the state allow opening of vials only after around ten candidates are present for vaccination. Also, strict supervision over vaccinators is being performed to make sure that doses do not go to a waste.
In Assam, the wastage happened due to a logistical error when authorities discarded 100 vials of Covishield, the novel coronavirus vaccine, after they were discovered to be frozen.
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Disclaimer: This article is issued in the general public interest and meant for general information purposes only. Readers are advised not to rely on the contents of the article as conclusive in nature and should research further or consult an expert in this regard.
