In the world's most massive COVID-19 vaccination program carried in India, today the union health ministry expressed concern over the wastage of the vital vaccine in certain states of the country. The ministry said that Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh were the top 3 contributors to India's Covid-19 vaccine wastage, which is currently at 6.5 per cent.
In a press conference held today, the ministry informed that Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh were wasting the most Covid-19 vaccines.
A vial of the vaccine contains a set number of doses that need to be administered within a few hours of opening the vile. Mismanagements of the vaccine vials during the cold storage of loss in transportation could also lead to wastage.
The government has set the acceptable vaccine wastage limit at 10 per cent.
Telangana has wasted 17.6 per cent of the Covid-19 vaccine given to the state, while Andhra Pradesh has wasted 11.6 per cent of the vaccine. The waste percentage in Uttar Pradesh stood at 9.4 per cent.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi too expressed disappointment at this wastage while speaking to Chief Ministers in the meeting that was held earlier in the day regarding the COVID-19 situation, said Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog.
On the other hand, the Centre lauded Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra for administering a health amount of vaccines till now.
"The United States started vaccination on December 14 and has given the jab to 10 crore people. India started this process on January 16 and we have provided vaccine to 3.58 crore people," said the ministry.
"On March 15, 8.34 million COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered worldwide, of which India alone administered 36 per cent of doses", the ministry said.
As many as 28,903 new COVID-19 cases and 17,741 recoveries were reported in India in the last 24 hours taking the total cases in the country to 1,14,38,734, including 2,34,406 active cases and 1,10,45,284 recoveries.
