BENGALURU: The State Government needs to accelerate its vaccination process, experts say, as it is not just about completing the first phase of vaccination within the stipulated time, but also the fact that the vaccines — both Covishield and Covaxin — which are being given to health workers in the first phase, have a shelf life of only six months.While the Covishield vaccine doses, which have reached Karnataka, have a manufacturing date of November 3, 2020, the expiry reads May 1, 2021.
The Covaxin has a manufacturing date of December 2020 and expires in May 2021. This means that the first batch of 9,40,740 doses of vaccines, including both Covishield and Covaxin, has to be administered by May 5. The state has so far inoculated 2,66,151 beneficiaries.
“We have to accelerate the process of vaccination. This way, we will take much longer to achieve the set target. We have to escalate the speed of coverage by measures like having additional vaccination sites and also allowing walk-in vaccination.
While zero wastage of vaccination is often not possible, the government should keep in mind that the vaccines are precious now and should not be wasted,” Dr C N Manjunath, Director, Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, said.
According to experts, the vaccines have already been kept in cold-storage during pre-production and the stockpile of lakhs of doses are waiting to be procured by the Central Government. “We have to start working backwards depending on the dates on the vials.
We cannot afford to waste any vaccine. We have to plan and figure out strategies. While the vaccines have to already be kept in cold storage, there may be temperature fluctuations and the like which may impact the vials. It would be ideal for the state to complete the planned phases by February-March so that they could use the vials without wasting any,” senior bioethics researcher Anant Bhan said.
Pointing out that hesitancy, doubts about vaccine efficacy, fears of side effects and some unconfirmed news about deaths had affected phase-1 of the vaccination drive, Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey said people are now coming forward to take the vaccine. “The government is also working out detailed plans and strategies to ensure that phase-1 of the vaccination drive is completed to begin the second dose for healthcare workers in the next 12 to 13 days,” he said.
‘Stock will be used for 2nd dose’
He also said there will be no reasons for worry about the expiry date or the vials going waste.
“We have no guidelines from the Central Government yet on the expiry, but I am sure there won’t be a situation like that. Whatever we have now, we will be using it for the second dose for healthcare and frontline workers. Also, for the second phase, we will be getting more vaccines with much later expiry dates. So there won’t be cause for worry,” he stressed.
Adding to this, Dr Giridhara Babu, senior epidemiologist and member of Covid Task Force Committee, said, “A bottom-up approach needs to be started in looking at whom we are vaccinating in the next phase. Technology has to be put in place. A comprehensive survey has to be done and people with co-morbidities should be mapped. They should make sure that the app also allows people to choose the venue and time of vaccination on their own.
Such planning will help in covering more people for the next phase which is going to be the most challenging one.”However, Dr Vishal Rao, head and neck oncologist at HCG, who has been questioning the Central Government over emergency use approval for Covaxin without published data, said, “The vaccine’s efficacy data itself expires in three months. Even if we argue about hurrying up the process for the approvals given under such circumstances, there is definitely a need to publish the efficacy data,” he felt.