Sindh wastes over 700,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines

KARACHI: As many as 760,935 doses of different Covid-19 vaccines have been wasted in Sindh, since the vaccination against the lethal virion started, primarily due to non maintainance of vaccine temperature and cold chain issues. The amount of vaccines lost due to incompetent handling is way beyond the WHO accepted two percent vaccine wastage.

According to officials of the Sindh Health Department, 220,675 doses of SinoVac, followed by170,675 doses of Sinopharm, 70,876 doses of single dose Pakvac 23,096 doses of Astrazeneca were wasted alongside 10,675 doses of Moderna, 10,178 doses of Pfizer and 85 doses of Sputnik. It is sad that many of these could have used to vaccinate hundreds of thousands more people.

According to the Health Department officials primarily the Vaccine Temperature, Cold Chain issues along with vaccine administration due to the unprofessional attitude of vaccinator towards vaccine and the people and general mishandling caused the loss of vaccines.

The World Health Organisation accepts only two percent of vaccine wastage but it seems the Sindh province has outmatched all the acceptable records. As far adverse event following immunisation (AEFI) more than 123 people were affected after the first dose and 10 were affected after the second dose. According to Health officials more than 14 million 56 thousand people have received the first dose, while 7 million 72 thousand people have received the second dose in the province.