While on one side India is suffering from shortage of vaccine doses, on the other side the country also believes that vaccine wastage is an expected part of any large inoculation drive. While the reports of vaccine wastage in various states are still prominent, Kerala has emerged as a super saviour of the vaccine doses. The Southern state has reported almost nil wastage of the precious COVID-19 vaccines.
Kerala with its efficient efforts has set an example for almost every other state in the country by administering about 74 lakh vaccine shots to its citizens with the availability of 73 lakh vaccine doses. Amazing. At a time when states are short of vaccines, the state with the competence of its health workers managed to use the extra dose of the vaccine that is actually added in each vial to compensate for the wastage.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan tweeted on Wednesday that the state had administered 74,26,164 vaccine shots to its people, using 73,38,806 vaccine doses which means that Kerala made use of around 87,358 extra vaccine doses. The state has been maintaining a negative wastage which means that even the doses that were allocated as ‘wastage factor’ are being utilised to inoculate people.
Looking at the excellent efforts made by the state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the efforts of the Kerala government in reducing vaccine wastage and said that the efforts are important in strengthening India’s fight against the COVID-19 disease.