Only 65273 doses available with UT out of 2381840
By: Ibni Maqbool
Srinagar: Amid shortage of COVID-19 vacancies in Jammu & Kashmir, it has come to fore 2.58 percent doses of the vaccine have been wasted in the Union Territory so far.
Official data released by the Union Ministry for Health and Family Welfare reveals that J&K has wasted 2.58 percent of COVID-19 doses till Thursday 8:00 am.
Officials told The Precious Kashmir that the vaccine wastage is primarily due to low turnout of beneficiaries.
“Each Covishield vial has 10 doses in total— each dose being 0.5 ml (for one person). Once opened, all doses have to be administered within four hours, otherwise, it goes waste and the remaining doses have to be destroyed,” they said.
According to the ministry’s data, 23,81,840 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were received by Jammu and Kashmir till date. Of which, 23,16,567 doses have been used so far, leaving J&K with mere 65, 2,73 doses.
Jammu and Kashmir’s projected population as on October 1, 2020 is 1, 33,65, 000.
It is worthwhile to mention that Centre has asked States to minimize wastage of COVID-19 vacancies.
Last week, the Delhi High Court pulled up the Centre for “criminal wastage” of vaccines, and said “whomsoever you can vaccinate” should be vaccinated, regardless of age, to ensure “all doses are fully utilised”.
Blaming the wastage on bad planning, the bench said, “We cannot make an app to deal with this situation? You should have known that there would be a situation that people may not turn up, because if a person turns up and you have to open a new vial, you will not tell him to come tomorrow.”
