The COVID-19 vaccine has received mixed opinion worldwide. While some people, including the healthcare workers, have welcomed the vaccines, others have expressed fear and uncertainty over their safety and efficacy. As a result, several people scheduled for vaccination are not turning up, leading to significant wastage of the vaccine. Recently, Karnataka reported a 6% wastage of the COVID-19 vaccine during the mass vaccination drive.
This has been an alert to the states and vaccine manufacturers. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) reported that the wastage was because of hesitancy or concern to receive the vaccine. Once a vaccine vial is opened its needs to be used within four hours, if not, it has to be discarded. For Covaxin, ideally, a new vial needs to be opened if there are 20 beneficiaries, but despite a lack of beneficiaries, a new vial is opened , leading to…
