Gurgaon: People long waited for a vaccine rollout so the city could tackle the virus through immunity. However,
vaccination drives have not gone as smoothly as anticipated.
Health workers on Friday cited concerns over wastage of vaccine
vials due to poor turnout in the district. A tepid response to the drives from
healthcare workers leading to absenteeism may have led to wastage of over 400 vaccine doses at inoculation centres across Gurgaon.
So far, 350 doses of Covishield and 100 of Covaxin vaccine have been wasted in Gurgaon. According to health department data, on average, 1.2 doses of Covaxin have been wasted compared to one dose of Covishield for every vial.
More doses of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin had been spoiled since they came in vials of 20, the health department said. “In Gurgaon, so far 25 vials of Covaxin have been used and out of which five have gone waste. Similarly, 744 vials of Covishield have been used here, out of which 35 vials have been wasted,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, Gurgaon. One vial of Covishield has 10 doses.
Both Covishield and Covaxin vials have to be discarded within four hours of being opened, as per the guideline.
Before the vaccination drive began last Saturday, Gurgaon had 44,000 doses of Covidshield and 4,200 of Covaxin. The city is also likely to get 39,000 additional doses of Covishield.
Meanwhile, a total of 24 people tested positive for
Covid-19 in the city on Friday, taking its caseload to 57,951.
The health department said 37 patients recovered on the day, bringing the total number of recoveries to 57,176. No one succumbed to the infection on Friday. The city has 423 active cases, and 381 of the patients are in home isolation.