Jammu Tawi, Mar 19: Around 6.6 per cent of Covid vaccine doses in Jammu and Kashmir have been wasted out of around 5 lakh vaccine doses that have been administered in the region so far.
In India, out of 3.46 crore doses which have been administered so far around 23 lakh vaccine have gone waste.
Financial Commissioner Health Atal Dulloo told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that the waste percentage in J&K is around 6.6 per cent.
He said that each Covishield vial had 10 doses in total and once opened, all doses have to be administered within four hours, otherwise, it goes to waste and the remaining doses have to be destroyed.
However, Dulloo said that vaccination process is picking up pace and more and more people are getting vaccinated.
Officials said that the vaccine wastage can be largely attributed to less number of people turning up to get vaccinated.
State Immunisation Officer Dr Qazi Haroon said that around five lakh people in J&K have so far received Covid vaccine doses and the process is going on.
He said that the waste percentage of vaccines as compared to other states is comparatively low.
Pertinently, only four states in India have a waste percentage more than J&K which includes Telangana (17.6 per cent), Andra Pradesh (11.5 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (9.4 per cent) and Karnataka (6.9 per cent).
Notably, the national average wastage percentage of Covid vaccine doses is 6.5 per cent—(KNO)
