Karnataka wasted 1.29 lakh Covid doses, all Covaxin

Karnataka is one of the 11 states that has wasted more than 1 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine, a dubious distinction that was pointed out by Union Minister of State Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar in the Lok Sabha on Friday.

As per Co-WIN portal data till Dec 18, the state has wasted 1,29,261 doses so far, with Ballari topping the wastage chart (61,203), followed by Koppal (45,080), Mysuru (40,043), Hassan (34,985), and Davangere (27,609).

The new data comes amid news that a huge number of beneficiaries are yet to take their second dose, even as the Omicron variant and fears of a third wave is keeping health officials on edge.

When contacted, Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar’s office said “all the 1,29,261 wasted doses were that of Covaxin”.

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“The reason why Covaxin is being wasted is because we are mostly getting 20 dose vials. In most places, we are not getting 20 people to come at once. The preference has shifted to Covishield and only second dose recipients of Covaxin are coming,” Sudhakar’s office said.

Covaxin manufacturer Bharat Biotech, previously commenting on their open vial policy, had told DH: “Covaxin has a 28 days open vial policy and there is no hurry to finish an open vial or go panicking in search of 10 people to finish the vial by the day or by six hours.”

Health officials in Hassan, Koppal and Gadag gave contrasting reasons for the wastage, from vaccine administrators unable to properly draw contents into the syringe to “pending data entry”.

Hassan District Health Officer Dr K M Satish Kumar told DH that the wastage happened because “when our vaccine administrators try to draw the contents of the vial into the syringe, they can’t eyeball 0.5 ml exactly”. This, he said, was the reason for the wastage of “30,000-odd doses” in the district.

Koppal DC Vikas Kishor Suralkar disputed the numbers and blamed it on pending data entry.

"Our actual wastage must be somewhere around 20,000 doses and not over 45,000. The rest of the doses have been used up but have not been updated on the CoWIN portal, causing it to be recorded as wastage," he said.

In terms of percentage, the top six districts with more than 2 per cent wastage of doses are: Koppal (3.8 per cent), Gadag (3.4 per cent), Mysuru (2.4 per cent), Haveri (2.3 per cent), Chitradurga (2.2 per cent), and Dharwad (2.1 per cent).

Gadag District Immunisation Officer Dr BM Gojanur said, “As per Co-WIN, our wastage is 24,812 doses. But we haven’t had a vaccine cold chain manager for four months now, hence the data lag.”

He, too, questioned the numbers. “While according to CoWIN, we have wasted 5,193 Covaxin doses, in actuality it is not more than 1,400. Even Covishield wastage is shown as 19,619 but we have not wasted more than 10,000 doses,” he said.

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