As a result of negative wastage, the West Bengal health department has purchased 20 lakh syringes in addition to the ones it receives from the Central government to administer the additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine the state has been able to save. According to a health department official, the number of syringes the state receives is consistent with the number of doses it receives.
However, Bengal had registered negative wastage, administering more doses than it had received, as reported by news agency IANS. This resulted in the use of more syringes than had been provided, causing the shortage. Approximately 20 lakh syringes will be purchased by the state government to address this shortage.
‘Despite our increased dose-volume, we are running low on syringes, so we are using vials instead. An efficient dose-administer can draw 11 doses from a vial that contains 10 doses. Many states have inoculated one additional person per vial of Covishield, something they have been doing especially in the case of Covishield. Syringes were consumed in greater quantities than were provided by the government. ‘We will procure around 20 lakh syringes,’ said director (health services) Ajay Chakraborty.
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Despite the state government writing to the center to obtain additional syringes, if they do not arrive, the state will have to cough up around Rs 1 crore from its own coffers since syringes cost around Rs 5 each. West Bengal managed to extract about 16 lakh extra doses of vaccine in the last three months from its stipulated quota only by saving the extra dose that was given in a vial to compensate for waste. Kerala is the only state after West Bengal that has managed to achieve negative vaccine waste by skillfully administering the vaccine and has earned praise from the federal government.
There is a term for this process called ‘negative wastage’, which means not only ensuring zero wastage, but actually eking out and administering an extra dose from each vial. Covishield doses have been thrown away at a negative 7 percent rate in the last three months, despite a low supply of vaccines forcing the state to move slowly on the drive. ‘Bengal has already received 3 crore doses (combination of Covishield and Covaxin) from the Central government. In addition, the state procured 17.7 lakh doses on its own from May to June,’ a senior government official said.
Despite purchasing 17.7 lakh doses on its own, the state government had procured only 10 lakh syringes. The syringe stock has also been eaten away by this. However, health officials said they were able to continue vaccinating despite the shortage of syringes, as they used the same syringes as for universal vaccination.
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