Karnataka uses extra doses in vials, gives 3.1 lakh more jabs than official allotment

Karnataka saved more than 3.1 lakh vaccine doses by administering the one or two extra doses provided by the manufacturer in vials to allow for wastage. The state is the seventh highest in the country in extracting extra doses from vaccine vials.

Across the country, 41.12 lakh doses were thus saved, according to a reply by the Union Health Ministry in the Lok Sabha on July 23. Tamil Nadu topped by extracting an extra 5,88,243 vaccine doses in this manner from May 1 to July 13. In Karnataka, while Dharwad saved 26,484 doses, Belagavi saved 1,18,731.

Yashwanth Madinkar, Dharwad district health officer (DHO), told DH, the district has administered 7,18,914 doses from January 16 when the vaccination drive started till date though they were supplied with only 6,92,430 doses. "We have a negative wastage percentage of -3.8%. We trained our health workers not to waste even a single dose. Before we open a vial, we make sure there are 10 people waiting to be vaccinated."

"Even if we have five or six beneficiaries ready, we don't take any chances by anticipating four or five more people as we have only four hours, after which the vial has to be discarded irrespective of the usage. We would rather make people wait till at least 10 or 11 of them come," he added.

Belagavi district monitoring and evaluation manager Sidram HM said the district has given 16,44,221 doses over their received supply of 15,25,490 thereby saving more than a lakh doses. Till July 27, for a population of 36,32,200, the district has received vaccine doses sufficient for 41.99%. District immunisation officer Dr Ishwar Gadad said, "We have a negative wastage percentage of -3%."

Dr Bharath Kumar, district immunisation officer, Chikkamagaluru, also one of the districts to have extracted extra doses, said, "Previously in a 10-dose Covishield vial, we used to get 12 doses, but now we are getting an extra dose of 1.5 or 1. Yet, we are saving those doses. In all, 38,112 extra doses have been extracted: 37,670 Covishield doses and 442 Covaxin doses."

Udupi district immunisation officer Dr M G Rama said the district saved 43,300 doses by using the one or two extra doses in a vial, right from the beginning of the vaccination drive till July 28. Mysuru district health officer Dr KH Prasad said, "We have administered more doses than the ones officially supplied to us."

States which have saved more vaccine doses than Karnataka has are: West Bengal (4,87,147), Gujarat (4,62,819), Kerala (3,92,409), Maharashtra (3,59,493), and Madhya Pradesh (3,55,259).