Patiala: Few takers, vax stock set to expire

Karam Prakash

Patiala, September 11

Amid poor vaccination rate, thousands of unutilised doses of Covid-19 vaccine will expire in a few days, reveals record. Hundreds of doses will expire on September 14 and the remaining on September 18.

The Health Department, however, claimed that they would utilise all vaccine doses before the expiry date.

The Health Department has asked each block to utilise the vaccine doses before the expiry date. In a message to the block officials, the Health Department said, “Distribute the vaccine to the centres of your respective blocks so as to utilise the stock before the expiry date.”

According to information, many health centres in the district have hundreds of unutilised vaccine doses, which will expire on Wednesday.

Around 90 per cent of the adult population has received the first dose while the second dose coverage is still 74 per cent. The vaccination coverage among the poor is dismal in the district. The second dose coverage for both age groups — 12-14 years and 15-17 years — is still about 50 per cent.

Dr Balwinder Kaur, State Immunisation Officer, said, “We have informed every district to utilise the Covid vaccine doses, which are expiring in September. Directions were given to the nodal officers to make plans for a maximum utilisation and zero wastage.”

Dr Veenu Goyal, District Immunisation Officer, said, “We are hopeful that all unutilised doses, around 1,800, will be utilised before the expiry date. We have distributed all doses to centres and these will be utilised in the coming days.”

Vaccination pace remains poor

The Health Department on Sunday could administer only 41 doses in the entire district. At some centres, not even a single dose was administered. When questioned about the poor vaccination count, the department said the eligible beneficiaries were reluctant to get their due doses. Lakhs of eligible beneficiaries had skipped their precautionary dose in the district.