Over 25,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses go waste in Tamil Nadu due to low turnout

Senior epidemiologists, virologists, and infectious diseases experts have recommended that the unused vaccines be administered to the vulnerable population who are willing to get vaccinated.

Moneycontrol News

February 11, 2021 / 21:37 IST

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Over 25,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were wasted in Tamil Nadu due to low turnout at vaccination centres throughout the first phase of the drive, which began on January 16, 2021.

So far, 1,97,114 beneficiaries have been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus disease in the state.

According to a Times of India report, the Directorate of Health, which is overseeing the coronavirus vaccination drive in the state, has said that almost 15 percent of the vaccine shots that were allotted to the state, went waste.

Both Covaxin and Covishield – the two COVID-19 vaccines that have been granted emergency use approval in India – come in vials of 10 to 20 doses. They need to be used within four hours. Due to low turnout in Tamil Nadu, there are now several vials containing unused doses. These have been stacked away in special boxes labelled “unusable vials”.

Health officials do not have permission to administer these to elderly persons, even if they are willing. Several of these patients with comorbidities have been waiting to get their first COVID-19 vaccine shot in the state. Senior epidemiologists, virologists, and infectious diseases experts have recommended that the unused vaccines be administered to the vulnerable population who are willing to get vaccinated.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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