89 doses of Covaxin wasted in 3 days
MUMBAI: Amid the ongoing technical glitch in the centralised app CO-WIN, the turnout of the first indigenous vaccine— Covaxin has been badly affected in the state. As a result of this, in the first three days of the immunisation programme, 89 doses of Covaxin have been wasted in the state. The vaccine centres are now coming up with new plans to save the wastage.
While each vial of Covishield has 5ml of the vaccine with each dose being 0.5 ml, which is equivalent to 10 doses, a Covaxin vial contains 20 doses.
In the first three days (January 16, 19 and 20) of the vaccine, as many as 89 doses of Covaxin have been wasted which can only be preserved for four hours after being open.
In the six Covaxin vaccination sites in Maharashtra, the government-run Grant Medical College in Mumbai which is also known as Sir JJ Hospital, 13 doses were wasted. While at the Government Medical College (GMC) Nagpur, 26 doses were wasted, the highest in the state. This is followed by GMC Aurangabad (16 doses), GMC Solapur (13 doses), and District Hospital (DH) Pune (14). The DH Amravati has wasted only 7 doses, the lowest in the state till January 19.
As per the data collected from the six centres, on January 16, only 17 doses of Covaxin were wasted in the state. But on the second day of vaccination, the amount of wastage increased by 129% when the centres failed to use 39 doses due to low turnout of shortlisted beneficiaries. On the third day, 33 doses were wasted.
On January 16, out of the 600 shortlisted candidates for Covaxin, 383 of them got vaccinated in the six centres of the state. However, on Tuesday, due to the technical glitch, the CO-WIN app generated over 250 names of the healthcare workers (HCWS) who were to take the Covaxin jab on Day 1 of vaccination in the state. Due to this confusion, the overall turnout of the HCWS for Covaxin fell to 181 in the state on the second day of the vaccination. However, on the third day, the number increased to 327 in the state due to the walk-in vaccination. Out of this, Amravati recorded 115 vaccination, the highest in the state.
Each day, the centres have a target to vaccinate 100 people for which they need five vials of Covaxin. Thus, if vaccination centres get fewer HCWS, the remaining opened dosages will go to waste. For instance, on January 19, GMC Nagpur vaccinated 29 HCWS. This led to the waste of 11 doses in the second vial.
“On the first day of the vaccination, as we had recorded 100% turnout, we didn’t lose any unit. However, the next day when only 38 HCWS came forward, we lost two doses from the second vial,” said Dr Dilip Ranmale, DHO, Amravati.
Now, to address the issue of the low turnout of the beneficiaries, the health department has instructed the six centres to call more than the target number of beneficiaries.
Also, CO-WIN application has added another option, ‘add beneficiaries’ under which HCWS who are registered on the app can get vaccinated even if they don’t have an appointment for the day.
“We have a target to vaccinate 100 HCWS every day. But from today, we are going to call around 150 people for the appointment to increase the turnout,” said Dr Deepak Selukar, DHO, Nagpur.
HEALTH DEPT HAS NOW INSTRUCTED THE SIX CENTRES TO CALL MORE THAN THE TARGET NUMBER OF BENEFICIARIES