Madhya Pradesh saves 8 lakh vaccine doses as wastage drops below zero

INDORE: State has managed to save around eight lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine through extraction of spare doses from the vials by different measures including imparting knowledge through training.
A manufacturer claims that there are ten doses in a vial of vaccine but in most of the cases of Covishield, there are eleven doses. The extra dose extraction also didn’t impact administration of 0.5 ml dose to each beneficiary prescribed by the health ministry.It could become possible through extraction of the eleventh dose from the vials with supervision, monitoring and training.
The state saved lakhs of doses, procured from tax payers money, by lowering the wastage of vaccines to below zero to the level of -2.59% till date. In terms of vaccines, the wastage rates differ with -2.7% in Covishield and -1.7% in Covaxin, showed the record. State immunisation officer Dr Santosh Shukla said, “We came to know about the wastage of spare eleventh dose in vials somewhere around May. And, during discussion with staffers they pointed out towards technical issue for not using that precious spare dose.”
After this discussion, a decision to use this dose of vaccine was taken and a training programme under supervision was held. It helped save vaccines by reducing the wastage in negative below zero per cent, said Dr Shukla.
“With these efforts, the state featured at sixth spot in saving vaccine through extraction of the spare dose from vials by July 20. We saved somewhere around 3.50 lakh doses by mid-July starting from May”, added Dr Shukla. Union health ministry in a reply in Lok Sabha in the ongoing monsoon session stated that in the period of May 1 to July 20, Madhya Pradesh saved around 3.55 lakh doses of vaccine and remained on sixth spot in the list of states and union territories doing so. The reply further stated that there were only six states reporting wastage of vaccines. Dr Shukla said, “Our vaccinators have become champions of extracting that eleventh dose from the vial.” It has become possible as around one crore doses were administered in the last one month, added Dr Shukla.