THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The efficiency exhibited by the state’s nurses in administering vaccines without spill has once again become the talk of the town, with the number of jabs administered in the state crossing 1 crore on Saturday. To achieve this feat, the state has opened the least number of vaccine vials when compared to any other part of the country. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hailed Kerala’s zero wastage policy, at a time when several states were reporting wastage of up to 12%.
The manufacturers have made vaccine vials meant for 10 doses. Each vial contains around 6ml of vaccine, of which each person is administered 0.5ml. Though about 10% of the vaccine is usually wasted during the extraction, the nurses’ skillful use of syringe helped extract up to 11 or even 12 doses from a vial. “The syringe handling and air expelling techniques helped nurses save the extra doses, that too, at a time when vaccine is in short supply. This must have saved many lives,” said Nisha Hameed, state secretary, Kerala Government Nurses Association.
Health Minister Veena George lauded the vaccination team for their service, adding that the state has so far administered 1,00,13,186 doses. An earlier estimate found that 74,26,164 doses were administered using vials meant for just 73,38,806 doses, which means 87,358 extra jabs were given.
According to Nisha, these extra savings have helped vaccine centres arrange spot admissions and thus increase the vaccine coverage. As of now, around 22% of the state’s population has received at least one dose. Economical use of materials was part of the ethics that each nurse learns in the first year of their course, she said. “It’s just recently that people have come to know about the efficient use of vaccines. However, we have been trained to save energy, material and time in every aspect of health care,” she said.