BHUBANESWAR: Odisha has topped in the country in terms of curbing vaccine wastage. The state has so far saved 12.2 lakh doses and thus registered -5.5 per cent misuse. This means the state administered 105 doses and saved five for every 100 doses allotted.
The state till Wednesday administered 2.45 crore doses, which include 12.2 lakh saved doses. The capital’s entire population can be vaccinated with at least the first jab with the saved doses.
Bijay Panigrahi, director, health and family welfare, said: “The 12.2 lakh doses include the total doses administered so far in the state, but we take them as additional doses since they have been saved.”
“Ideally, one vial of vaccine is meant for 10 beneficiaries, but it can be stretched to 11, while 10 vials can be utilised for up to 110 doses. In Odisha, it is 105 as we can save doses in some vials. So the wastage is -5.5 per cent. Had our vaccination per 10 vials been somewhere around 98 or 99, it would have been a waste,” Panigrahi added.
Neighbouring Chhattisgarh’s vaccine wastage percentage is -9.
While Odisha till Tuesday achieved 58 per cent coverage of the first dose, seven districts have less than 50 per cent coverage. Districts with less than 60 per cent of second dose coverage against the due target are Malkangiri (50 per cent), Nabarangpur (55 per cent), Boudh (57 per cent) and Kandhamal (58 per cent). Nine districts are yet to cross the 1-lakh mark in terms of administering the second dose.
On Wednesday, 2.16 lakh doses were administered at 1,360 vaccination centres, taking the total numbers of first dose to 1,84,86718 and the second to 60,67,292.
The state on Wednesday reported 762 new infections against 754 recoveries, bringing the number of active cases down to 6,853, which is 1.78 per cent of the country’s cumulative active caseload so far. The death toll in Odisha stands at 8,070.
Except Boudh, all 29 districts reported new Covid-19 cases, with Khurda and Cuttack each reporting three-digit figures.
