Short shelf life increasing wastage margin, delaying getting the shots
Morung Express News
Dimapur | March 28
While hesitancy has remained a big barrier, if not the biggest, towards the government’s immunisation goal against COVID-19, there appears to be another on ground dilemma facing immunisation officers. The problem is a practical one, which has pitted pace against vaccine wastage.
It so happened that a group of 3-4 children, in the 12-14 years age group, who had turned up an government vaccination centre in Dimapur, were asked to go back home without getting the recommended CorBEvax shots. The incident happened some 3-4 days ago.
According to a guardian of one of the children, they were told to come in a group, comprising of atleast 10 (targeted) beneficiaries. The reason cited was that one vial of the vaccine contains 10 shots meant for 10 people.
In the face of widespread vaccine hesitancy, it left the guardians facing another dilemma— how to increase the number of children in the group to 10, besides convincing other parents to get their children to tag along with them to get the vaccine?
State Immunisation Officer, Dr Ritu Thurr had this to say when contacted by The Morung Express for comment, on Monday evening. “There is no specific norm that beneficiaries must come in groups of 10. On the other hand, there is the issue of vaccine wastage,” he said, while stating that the medical officer of the vaccination centre must have adopted the policy to minimize vaccine wastage.
Vaccines have relatively short shelf life. According to Dr Thurr, once a vial is opened, the contents have to be administered within 4-6 hours, which means that 10 or 20 beneficiaries have to be present within that timeframe, at any given vaccination centre, on any working day. It, however, is unpredictable, he said.
COVID vaccines come in vials containing 10 or 20 doses each, “If we have to open one vial for only 2-3 beneficiaries, vaccine wastage would be very high,” he maintained.
Asked how to overcome the problem, he said that the Health department has already posted public announcements on how to register (schedule a date) on the COWIN online portal. He though maintained meeting the ‘10 a group’ criterion would vary from day to day.
According to him, going school to school would speed up the vaccination campaign, particularly the 12-14 years group, even though, it would translate into more work for the immunisation personnel.
“From our side, we have already given the guidelines to the District Immunisation Officers and District Task Forces to coordinate with the Education department, so that instead of students coming to the vaccination centres, immunisation personnel are allowed to go to the schools.”
