BHOPAL: For every 100 vaccine doses that were provided to Madhya Pradesh, it has administered vaccines to at least 104 people, putting the state at 11th position on the national chart.
Chhattisgarh tops with 10% 'negative wastage', or 110 doses administered per 100 received, according to information provided under RTI Act by the health ministry to Neemuch-based activist Chandrashekhar Gaur.
So, how can a state score 100%-plus in a paper of 100? There is no mathematical jugglery here. Each vial of the vaccine actually contains 11 doses, but only 10 are counted and wastage is also calculated on this basis, say sources.
It is due to this that ‘negative wastage’ – or over-utilisation -- is achieved when even a vial’s 11th dose is used up.
The health ministry’s reply explains ‘negative wastage value’: “It means there is no wastage; instead, the vaccine has been optimally utilized and additional doses have been extracted.”
Dists with less vac wastage get more vials
As per the RTI reply, MP has a wastage of minus-4.41% as on August 17, 2021. Daman and Diu (-6.05%) comes second and Kerala (-5.94%) third. Among the states ahead of MP are Gujarat (-5.77%), Tamil Nadu (-5.63%), Assam (-5.38%), Goa (-4.99%) and Bengal (-4.96%). Delhi is at 25th place.
In fact, states are squeezing out the maximum from the doses allotted to them – a complete turnaround from the initial days when vaccine wastage was a concern. Only five states still figure in the vaccine wastage category – Odisha (0.75%), Jammu and Kashmir (0.93%), Manipur (1.54%), Tripura (3.54%) and Meghalaya (3.74%).
“In the initial days, we had positive vaccine wastage, but with appropriate emphasis and effective monitoring, it was brought down. Our chief minister monitored this and emphasised maximizing vaccine use. When awareness was created, we started incentivizing districts that had least or negative wastage – they were provided with more vaccines. Successive campaigns increased awareness and this is how we arrived at negative wastage,” state health commissioner Akash Tripathi told TOI.
