AP faces major task of injecting Covid-19 vaccines before they expire

VIJAYAWADA: State health authorities are facing a major challenge of administering nearly 1.50 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccines before their shelf life expires in six months.

AP has so far received two consignments of 8,85,500 doses of Covishield vaccine with an expiry date of April and 1,64,320 doses of Covaxin that will expire by end of May. These vaccines are to be administered before they expire. Once these doses expire, they need to be mandatorily discarded.

Though authorities planned to administer Covid-19 vaccine to 3.88 lakh healthcare workers in Phase-I from January 16 onwards, so far, only 1.79 lakh of them have been given the jab in the state. The first phase of Covid vaccination ended on Saturday. It is now the turn of pulse polio vaccination from January 31 to February 2. The second phase of Covid-19 vaccination will be taken up either from February 3 or 4 when frontline workers from panchayat raj, municipal administration, revenue and police departments are to receive nearly nine lakh doses.

In the first phase of vaccination, however, though health authorities targeted to vaccinate 45,000 persons a day, their number was at most 11,000–12,000 a day. On certain days, this fell to as low 3,000–4,000. Authorities are quite concerned about the low turnout of beneficiaries in AP when the people are turning up in good numbers to get vaccinated in neighbouring Telangana and Karnataka.

The low turnout in Andhra Pradesh is being attributed to beneficiaries having considerable apprehensions about the vaccine’s adverse effects after taking the jab. For example, a healthcare worker developed neurological problems like convulsions after taking the jab at Machilipatnam. The news spread like wildfire and in no time many refrained from taking the shot. Prior to this, an Asha worker had died in Guntur after taking the vaccine and a dentist of Prakasam district showed adverse effects. Reasons for the negative reactions are yet to be scientifically ascertained.

It is stated youngsters are showing no negative response, though complications in aged persons are relatively higher.

As a result, state health authorities have resolved to take up an intense awareness drive on the need to take the jab for people’s own safety, underlining that vaccine doses developed within our country are quite safe. They are also pointing out that if a targeted beneficiary misses the chance to take the vaccine, his or her next chance may come again after a year or so. Moreover, it would not be known whether at the time the vaccine will be administered free of charge, unlike the current times.

Presently, the centre is purchasing each vaccine dose for Rs. 200 for administering the same to targeted beneficiaries. If people miss the free vaccine now, they many have to shell out more money to vaccinate themselves and their family.

Health director Dr T. Geetha Prasadini said, “It is true the turnout for the jab is very less. There are varied reasons for the same. We have now decided to intensify our drive for motivating targeted beneficiaries into taking the vaccine without any reservations. This will help us administer out entire stock of vaccine without the need to discard them,” she maintained.