Shortage of 0.5 ml syringes and 1 and 2 ml used to administer Covid 19 vaccines

Hyderabad: There seems to be a severe shortage of 0.5 ml auto-disabled syringes as they are preferred for administration of Covid-19 vaccine to control wastage, according to sources.

Primary health centres, community health centres and sub-centres in the state have been asked to use 1 ml and 2 ml syringes for the vaccination programme.

Public health centres in the city have been asked to use 2 ml and in rural sector 1 ml syringes are to be used.

The procedure developed by the health department is to fill 0.5 ml of vaccines and make 100 lots for each centre. With each vaccine bottle giving 10 to 12 doses, the method helped to control the wastage and also procure extra doses.

But now with the shortage, there is fear of wastage. A senior doctor at a PHC says, "One ml syringe in rural areas is being used as we fear that while handling, they may use more than one dose or use extra ml. In urban and city areas, 2 ml is being used as the handling is better."

Mohammed Niaz Khan, managing director of SAP Medicals in Hyderabad says, "There is a shortage of 0.5 ml syringes in the market which are specially designed for administering Covid-19 vaccine. This was done keeping in mind that the vaccine doses can be administered of exact quantity and the wastage can be controlled. Since the vaccination drive has been intensified, 1 ml syringes are being used."

There are two manufacturers in India who are into large scale production but they state that the increasing demand from states cannot be met immediately. Rajiv Nath, forum coordinator of Association of Indian Medical Device Industry said as against 300 million per annum, the demand has gone up to 1.8 billion per annum due to Covid vaccination.

The Telangana government as on September 24 has given 4,59,410 vaccines and are targeting this number to achieve complete vaccination in the state.

A total of 2,40,76,406 vaccines have been administered in the state.