National average is 6.3 per cent
The Centre has again asked the states to keep their vaccine wastage below 1%. States such as Jharkhand (37.3%), Chhattisgarh (30.2%), Tamil Nadu (15.5%), Jammu and Kashmir (10.8%), Madhya Pradesh (10.7%) are reporting much higher wastage than the national average of 6.3%.
The Union health secretary has urged the states and UTs to make complete use of the available flexibilities on the Co-WIN app to enhance pace of vaccination.
Esha S, a chartered secretary in Coimbatore, informed The Observer: “For the past 10 days, I have been trying to get vaccinated, but I was sent back by people at the vaccine centre due to limited availability of doses. They wasted 15.5%. After trying for 10 days, I got vaccinated today (May 26).”
The health and family welfare ministry has asked the States and UTs to prepare a district-wise, Covid Vaccination Centre plan for administration of vaccines till June 15.
Private hospitals are not allowing offline vaccine registration; all registrations should be done online. Industrial and corporate organizations that do not have their own hospital would partner with a private hospital. In addition, private hospitals were recommended to print a sufficiently longer vaccination schedule in terms of days.
“The States/UTs should make full use of the CoWIN flexibilities to speed up the vaccination drive,” said Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary.
Vikas Sheel, Additional Secretary (Health) talked about the new features of the Co-WIN platform. “The minimum age can now be set to any value from 18 to 44 years. States were also informed that Sputnik, the Russian vaccine, has now been added to the Co-WIN portal.”
Jagrit Sachdeva, a resident of Delhi, said, “Government should issue a bulletin for total doses administered versus total doses used. These out-of-the-blue statements are not helping. On what basis are they saying vaccines are being wasted? Without any information like total vaccine procured by the state government.”
Principal Secretary, Health Department, Chhattisgarh said that the data is incorrect and that Chhattisgarh vaccine wastage is not (30.2%) but lesser. The Principal Secretary has written a letter to the Health ministry to correct the data they have release.
“As per total vaccine doses availability with government on Jharkhand till today, current vaccine wastage proportion is only 4.65%. Vaccination data could not be fully updated to the central Co-Win Platform due to technical difficulties and the updation is in process,” said Jharkhand CMO
States have been urged to set a time limit for publishing the schedule (e.g., between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., 9 p.m. and 10 p.m.) to make it easier for people to see availability and book appointments for Covid vaccination.
