480 Covishield vaccines go waste in Rajasthan's Dungarpur

Rajasthan is once again in the news for vaccine wastage, with over 480 doses being destroyed due to improper handling of the vials in the Dungarpur district. The doses of Covishield vaccines stored in the Raghunathpura village primary health centre went to waste after the refrigerator malfunctioned. With nobody noticing the equipment error, the vials inside the refrigerator froze.

Following this, a three-member team was instituted led by Dungarpur Chief Medical Health Officer Mahendra Parmar to probe the incident. The CMHO visited the hospital on Tuesday and sought a written statement from hospital nurse Lata Yadav who reportedly first saw the frozen vaccine doses.

Covishield is stored at a refrigeration temperature of 2-8 degree Celsius. However, according to reports, the refrigerator at the village health centre was below freezing point.

In the last couple of weeks, several instances of vaccine wastage have been reported from different districts of Rajasthan. However, state ministers have rejected the claims. Instead, they accused the Centre of trying to divert attention from the shortage of vaccine supply by creating such controversies.