Chennai: Covid-19 vaccine is an essential public health commodity with global scarcity and therefore, its wastage must be reduced and kept to a minimum level which will further help inoculate many people, the Union Health Ministry has said.
The government said it is ‘proactively trying to curb wastage of Covid-19 vaccines’ and that it is ‘guiding’ States and UTs in ‘effectively using doses to fight the pandemic’.
It also hit back at “media reports stating the Ministry of Health’s insistence in keeping vaccine wastage below one per cent is unrealistic and undesirable”.
It said several states have organised vaccination in such a way, that not only there is no wastage but they are able to extract more doses from the vial and thus show a negative wastage.
“Hence, the expectation that vaccine wastage should be 1% or less is not at all unreasonable. It is reasonable, desirable and achievable,” the Ministry said.
It said vaccination against Covid-19 is important in protecting the people from coronavirus infection and associated mortality and morbidity. Equitable access to safe and effective vaccines is critical in ending the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Vaccine development takes a lot of time and demand for these vaccines exceeds the supply many times. Thus, it is important to monitor and ensure that this precious tool to address the pandemic should be used optimally and judiciously. Covid-19 vaccine is an essential public health commodity with global scarcity. Therefore, vaccine wastage must be reduced and kept to a minimum level which will further help vaccinate many people,” the Ministry said in its statement.
It added: “Any reduction in wastage means inoculating more people and leads to strengthening the fight against Covid-19. Each dose saved means vaccinating one more person.”