Vaccination: Bengal extracts extra doses from vials

KOLKATA: Bengal has been successfully extracting minimum 7 to 10 extra doses of vaccine on an average basis from 10 vials, which is beyond the labeled quantity of doses supposed to be administered. This has become possible due to the efficiency of nursing personnel and health workers in the Covid vaccination centers (CVC) across the state.

As a result, no vaccine dose is wasted in Bengal and therefore the wastage rate in the state remains in negative figure. It happened only because the state has ensured overutilisation of vials by extracting more doses given in extra.

In the country, around 6 to 7 doses out of 100 are wasted by the health workers but in the case of Bengal, the same amount is extracted as extra over 100 doses which is the usual utilisation figure in the case of 10 vials. It is expected that 10 doses can be administered on 10 people from each vial but there is an extra amount given in each vial considering the wastage issue. Bengal has managed to use the extra doses and thereby drawing the attention of many other states.

According to an estimate, in the states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu around 15-30 per cent doses are wasted.

Most of the time, Bengal has been utilising 11 to 12 doses from each vial. It means that 1 to 2 persons are being vaccinated from the doses, which are beyond the normal counting. It is presumed that 10 people would be vaccinated from each vial.

"It has been happening both in the case of Covishield and Covaxin. Around 1-1.5 mm vaccines are kept within the vial in extra. Around 0.5 mm quantity is administered on each person. It has become possible in the state due to the efficiency of our health workers. Each vial is opened when there are at least 11-12 beneficiaries," said a senior health official.

It may be mentioned here that the amount of doses supplied to Bengal by the Centre is lower than many other states.

Despite the crunch, the state has managed to conduct 4 lakh daily vaccinations for the fourth time so far. In the past 24 hours, around 3,14,637 doses were administered across the state.

Bengal has so far administered cumulatively 3,45,90,461 doses till Monday.

On Sunday, around 70,000 doses had been administered. In the special category vaccine group aged between 18-45, around 87,86,454 doses have been administered so far.

The department has already prioritized the administration of second doses of vaccine due to the short supply.