Vaccine wastage at 4.1% for Covidshield, 17.5% for Covaxin in Delhi

Currently, the vaccination drive is open to health workers and front-line workers and Delhi has so far vaccinated 131,935 beneficiaries, government records showed.

In its ongoing vaccination drive against Covid-19, Delhi has recorded a wastage rate of 4.1% for the Covishield vaccine and 17.5% for Covaxin, said a senior Delhi government official, citing a report prepared by the health department on Tuesday.

While Covishield is the Indian variation of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, and is manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), Covaxin was developed by Bharat Biotech, an Indian firm. (Bloomberg)

“For Covishield, Delhi’s wastage rate is 4.1%. That means, for every 1,000 doses administered to beneficiaries, 41 doses went waste. For Covaxin, the wastage rate is 17.5%. However, these rates are lower than the national average at this stage – it is 6.3% for Covishield and 25.8% for Covaxin,” the official said.

While Covishield is the Indian variation of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, and is manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), Covaxin was developed by Bharat Biotech, an Indian firm.

Delhi was supplied around 264,000 doses of Covishield and 20,000 doses of Covaxin in the first batch, with which the vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16. Currently, the vaccination drive is open to health workers and front-line workers and Delhi has so far vaccinated 131,935 beneficiaries, government records showed.

“The central government has set a permissible limit of 10% of dose wastage, irrespective of which vaccine. Earlier this month, the central government had asked states and Union territories to assess the vaccine wastage,” said the official quoted above.

For higher wastage of Covaxin, government officials cited two reasons – higher number of doses per vial, creating difficulties in management as all doses have to be administered within four hours of a vial being opened; and relatively low turnout at centres administering Covaxin.

A second senior health department official, on condition of anonymity, said, “Across states, wastage rate is higher for Covaxin because each vial of this vaccine has 20 doses, unlike Covishield vials that have 10 doses each. Once a vial is opened, all doses have to be administered within four hours. So clearly, wastage management is difficult for the centres administering Covaxin.”

Of the 184 vaccination centres in Delhi, 151 are administering the Covishield vaccine and 33 are administering Covaxin. Each centre has a target of 100 shots a day. On Tuesday, 12,717 beneficiaries were vaccinated in Delhi – of whom 10,694 were administered Covishield and 2,023 were administered Covaxin, government data showed.

“The other problem is the relatively low turnout at centres administering Covaxin. The trend has been so since the launch of the drive (January 16),” said the second official.

Delhi government records show that the 33 Covaxin centres collectively recorded a turnout of 61.30% on Tuesday against 70.82% for the Covishield centres. On Monday, turnout for Covaxin was 43.58%, against 56.48% for Covishield. On Saturday, Covaxin centres collectively logged 30.15% turnout against 58.32% for those administering Covishield, government records showed.

Dr Suneela Garg, director professor of community medicines department, Maulana Azad Medical College in Delhi and member of the Lancet Covid-19 commission and vaccination task force for India, said: “For wastage, the central government has set a permissible limit of 10%. The wastage of Covaxin doses is clearly way above that mark. I would recommend that it is better to have vials with fewer doses. Also, Covaxin centres will have to make an extra effort to increase turnout. There is a need for intensifying campaigns and adopting a multipronged strategy to address vaccine hesitancy. Higher turnouts will reduce wastage.”