Wastage higher in Covaxin as demand plummets
The Hindu
One of the causes for wastage is also shortage of syringes of 0.5 ml capacity
Karnataka that had managed to extract and administer extra doses from each COVID-19 vaccine vial till July end, has again reported a wastage of 0.06%. The wastage is especially seen in Covaxin at 0.82%.
Although the State has recorded ‘negative wastage’ in Covishield thereby extracting 3,43,951 extra doses from the overall usage, as many as 46,472 doses of Covaxin have been wasted so far. With this, Covaxin wastage has been recorded at 0.82% as of October 7.
Vaccine usage is calculated as the proportion of vaccines administered out of the total allotted. After the COVID-19 vaccination was rolled out in January, a vaccine wastage of nearly 7% was being reported initially. However, by July 23, 2021, this turned into ‘negative wastage’ of -2.23% thereby adding a total of 1,75,165 doses to the assigned stock in vaccination centres. State Health officials attributed this to meticulous micro planning of the vaccine sessions.