Bihar’s Covid vaccine wastage rate much below permissible limit: State govt

The state’s cumulative vaccine wastage till Saturday was 0.2% for Covaxin and 3.5% for Covishield, with the state having achieved 78% first-dose vaccination of healthcare workers, said a state health officer.

Bihar is among the few states in the country with minimum wastage of vaccine against coronavirus disease (Covid-19), according to the state government.

Representational image. (REUTERS)

The state’s cumulative vaccine wastage, in terms of doses, till Saturday was 0.2% for Covaxin and 3.5% for Covishield, with the state having achieved 78% first-dose vaccination footfall against a target of inoculating 476,000 healthcare workers, said a state health officer.

“The vaccine wastage, as on Friday, was 2.3% for Covishield and 1.1% for Covaxin, against an admissible wastage limit of 10% allowed by the ministry of health and family welfare (MoH&FW),” said Manoj Kumar, executive director of the State Health Society and the state nodal officer for vaccination.

Gujarat was among 10 states with maximum vaccine wastage under THE MoHFW scanner, said officials.

Bihar haS so far received 1.1 million doses of the two vaccines, of which Covishield accounted for 1 million doses and Covaxin 100,000 doses.

The state has kept rigorous tabs on vaccine wastage. The state health brass had even pulled up a couple of medical colleges, including the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital in Bhagalpur and the Nalanda Medical College Hospital in Patna, for slackness in the initial few days of the pan-India launch of the vaccination drive on January 16.

“We issued explicit instructions to keep vaccine wastage at a bare minimum. We have asked our healthcare officials not to open any vaccine vial till a minimum of 10 beneficiaries are present for vaccination. This has helped us keep vaccine wastage low and within permissible limits,” said Kumar.

One vial of Covishield is equivalent to 10 doses and a vial of Covaxin makes for 20 doses, said officials.

The state Saturday initiated inoculation of nearly 240,000 frontline workers.

Bihar achieved 52.55% first-dose vaccination of frontline workers on Saturday when 4,471 out of the targeted 8,507 turned up at 525 vaccination centres across the state. The vaccination of frontline workers was in addition to 15,450 healthcare workers out of targeted 50,150 to be vaccinated in the state on Saturday.

As many as 28 district magistrates, 16 superintendents of police, the municipal commissioner of Muzaffarpur and six additional district magistrates were among the 4,471 frontline workers vaccinated on day one of their vaccination against coronavirus, said Kumar.

“There were no reports of adverse event following immunization (AEFI) reported from any of the frontline workers vaccinated Sunday,” Kumar said.