Wastage of Covaxin doses at 21% in Ghaziabad

Ghaziabad: An estimated 1,593 doses of Covaxin have gone waste in Ghaziabad since the launch of the vaccination drive against Covid-19 on January 16, as per the state health department figures

Ghaziabad: An estimated 1,593 doses of Covaxin have gone waste in Ghaziabad since the launch of the vaccination drive against Covid-19 on January 16, as per the state health department figures. The wastage rate for Covaxin till March 8 is over 21%, which is well above the 10% limit allowed by the Union ministry of health. However, the district has fared better in terms of wastage of Covishield doses at about 4.54%, the data shows.

Officials of the Ghaziabad health department attributed the wastage primarily to fewer people coming up to get the jab. (Bloomberg)

Officials of the Ghaziabad health department attributed the wastage primarily to fewer people coming up to get the jab.

According to the state figures, Ghaziabad till March 8 had a consumption of 7,580 Covaxin doses with wastage of 21.02%, while 2,179 doses of Covishield, out of 47,950 doses, got wasted in the district.

“Covaxin was used primarily during the vaccination of front-line workers where we assumed that they would turn out in large numbers. However, when we sent the vials of Covaxin at the centres, many reported that only few of front-line workers arrived to take up jabs. Since a vial of Covaxin contains 20 doses, the rest turned waste. So, it was due to lower turnout of front-line workers that our wastage of Covaxin was on higher side,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer, Ghaziabad.

The overall wastage in the state for Covishield is about 9.35% (of 2215680 doses used) while that for Covaxin it is about 12.53% (of 257000 doses used), as per the official figures.

“The vaccination with Covishield is much better in terms of wastage as it has 10 doses in a vail. We have more stock of Covishield with us. So, majority of government as well as private hospitals were given Covishield vaccine,” Gupta added.

According to Ghaziabad’s stock figures for both the vaccines, the district vaccine store till April 9 despatched 108910 doses, including 20000 doses for the private sector, of Covishield to 29 vaccine storage points, while 16560 doses of Covaxin were despatched. From the vaccine storage points, the vials are further despatched to vaccination centres as per requirements, the officials said.

“Our wastage for the two vaccines is about 4-5%. On days when we have stock of Covaxin, we open a vial once we have 17-18 beneficiaries at our centre. So, this way, wastage is reduced considerably. We are vaccinating an average of 300-350 beneficiaries per day,” said Dr Sanjay Teotia, chief medical superintendent of Sanjay Nagar Combined District Hospital which operates six days a week.

The private hospitals are taking up paid vaccination to beneficiaries. “We are ensuring proper handling of vaccine doses and also ensuring that we open up a vial once we have presence of at least 10 beneficiaries. As a result, we have almost 0% wastage so far and we are administering vaccine to an average of about 200 beneficiaries per day,” said a spokesperson of Yashoda Hospital at Kaushambi.

According to the records of the district health department till March 9, 19,356 health-care workers (out of 25,003 identified beneficiaries under the category) have taken their first dose while 14,903 have got second dose as well.

Likewise, 10,676 of identified 18,897 front-line workers have taken up their first dose and 749 of these took their second dose till March 9.

Under the third category of senior citizens and those having co-morbid conditions, 15,968 senior citizens have taken first dose while another 1,373 beneficiaries having co-morbid conditions have also taken their first dose till March 9. The vaccination coverage for the senior citizens as well as those having co-morbid conditions is about 18.55% with a target of 93,480 to be achieved in March.

“To increase vaccination coverage, we are trying to allow the district women hospital to open up for vaccination for six days in a week,” Gupta added.

Overall, 25 government health-care centres and 33 private hospitals are engaged in the vaccination drive in Ghaziabad.