A day after the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare put Jharkhand at the top of a list of States wasting COVID-19 vaccine, the Hemant Soren government has said wastage was only 4.65%.
“Of the vaccine doses available with Jharkhand till today, the wastage proportion is only 4.65%. Vaccination data could not be fully updated to the Central Co-Win server or platform due to technical difficulties and the updation is in process,” said the Office of Jharkhand Chief Minister on Twitter on Wednesday.
“About 48.63 lakh vaccine doses were supplied to all districts while 42.07 lakh doses have been utilised. Vaccine coverage across all districts is about 40.12 lakh. The percentage of wastage is estimated at 4.63%,” it pointed out. Vaccines available in the State are 6.56 lakhs
“The Jharkhand government is fully focused on utilising its available vaccine doses in the most prudent manner possible, ensuring minimal wastage. We hope to minimise it further with more focused awareness campaigns in deep forested and other rural areas,” the Chief Minister’s Office said.
“Whereas States have been urged repeatedly to keep vaccine wastage below 1%, many States such as Jharkhand (37.3%), Chhattisgarh (30.2%), Tamil Nadu (15.5%), Jammu and Kashmir (10.8%), Madhya Pradesh (10.7%) are reporting much higher wastage than the national average (6.3%),” the MHFW Ministry had said on Tuesday.