India coronavirus: Concerns mount over high levels of vaccine wastage

India has administered 36 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to its citizens so far, the second-highest number in the world

More than two million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have gone to waste during India’s national inoculation drive, leading some officials to call on the public to cherish the “elixir-like, precious commodity”.

On Wednesday, Indian health officials highlighted that about 6.5 per cent of all doses delivered to the front line have been wasted.

Concerns are such that prime minister Narendra Modi spoke out over the issue, demanding immediate steps to tackle the problem and stating that “we are denying somebody’s rights because of this wastage”.

India started its the vaccination process in mid-January 2021 using two approved candidates – the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine marketed as Covishield here and a homegrown vaccine by Bharat Biotech known as Covaxin.

Since then, more than 37 million doses have been administered, placing India behind only the US in absolute figures, with America starting its drive earlier in mid-December. India has recorded more than 11.4 million cases of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic including over 159,000 deaths.

The number of doses going to waste is a serious concern for the health authorities as India, with its huge population, is still only immunising front-line workers, people whose age is over 60 years and 45 years in cases of people having pre-existing conditions.

“Wastage of this elixir-like precious commodity, the most important thing now for an individual or the country as a whole, is absolutely wrong,” senior health official Vinod Kumar Paul told reporters.

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Mr Modi expressed his concerns during a meeting on the Covid-19 situation with chief ministers of various states.

“We should be very much worried about the wastage of vaccine doses. Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have reported more than 10 per cent wastage of vaccine doses. The situation is similar in Uttar Pradesh. There should be monitoring regarding the wastage of vaccine doses in the states,” said the prime minister.

He called for a monitoring system “to avoid the wastage of vaccine doses.”

“We are denying somebody’s rights because of this wastage. We have no right to ruin anybody’s right. Whatever shortcomings of planning and governance at the local level, they should be rectified immediately. We should do everything to prevent this vaccine wastage and I would like states to start working with the target of zero wastage,” Mr Modi said.

Vials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine each contain multiple doses, and must be administered within a few hours of the liquid being removed from cold storage. Problems with managing the flow of patients can leave doses unused for too long and, ultimately, spoiled.

One of the reasons being put forward for the wastage is that while many urban vaccination centres have been crowded, authorities at some rural sites have had to nudge people to get the shots due to a lack of awareness among the public.

Additional reporting by agencies