Punjab health dept terms reports of vaccine wastage misleading

The Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department (P&SH) Punjab on Thursday rejected reports claiming that more than 38,000 Covid-19 vaccines have been wasted due to the non-provision of optimum storage temperature.

In a statement, Secretary P&SH Sarah Aslam said the numbers of doses being wasted are being misquoted by the media. She clarified that the reported numbers of wastage vaccines were actually the total figure from the last five months of routine wastage.

The secretary said that the wastage of coronavirus vaccines during the inoculation process stood at 0.37 percent of the total supply, which she maintained was a “normal waste”.

The data of these vaccines is also being shared with the National Command and Operation Control (NCOC) on a daily basis, she added.

She emphasized that Punjab’s all cold storages have made "excellent arrangements" to store vaccines as per international standards.

“Vaccine temperatures are routinely checked under the standard operating procedures,” she noted. She asked people not to fall for false reports regarding the wastage of vaccines.

“The Covid-19 vaccines are properly stored in our facilities and same are administered to hundreds of thousands of people on a daily basis,” she added