As COVID-19 is at its peak in the country, vaccination distribution is maximized to control the pandemic. But when many states, including Tamil Nadu, reported huge wastage of vaccines, Kerala has always set itself apart from the group with a zero wastage record. Kerala is the only state in the country with zero wastage of vaccines allotted to them.
The state even managed to use the extra dosage available per vial and set a model for the whole country. The Chief Minister of Kerala said that the full credit of this achievement goes to the health workers of the state, especially nurses. Their careful hands worked behind the successful administration of vaccines to the people. As per the tweet of Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan, from the 73,38, 806 doses supplied by the central, the state provided 74, 26,164 doses of vaccines to the people by making use of the wastage factor included in each vial. Each vial contains 5ml of vaccine, which means 0.5ml of dosages to 10 people. But taking out 0.5ml precisely is very difficult, and 1.1ml of every vaccine vial is considered the wastage factor. The health workers of Kerala made this difficult task practical and administered the vaccine to 10 people from a vial. Also, once opened, the vial should be completely used in a limited time. Otherwise, it becomes unusable. So to mitigate the loss, nurses will open the vial only if ten people are presented to get vaccinated, which also adds to the zero wastage achievement.
The state follows strict protocols in vaccine transportation, storage, and vaccination centers, where wastage is likely to occur. Even before the vaccination program started, Kerala provided training to the health workers regarding vaccines’ usage, which benefited a lot later. Next to Keara, Andhra Pradesh also made great achievements in vaccines with wastage of less than one percent, a number far below the nationwide average.
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