WASTAGE MULTIPLICATION FACTOR OF COVID-19 VACCINES: A DISTRICT-LEVEL STUDY

Mahwish Suhaib, Nitin Dutt Bhardwaj, Anmol Jain, Brig Pradeep Srivastava*, Saumya Rawat and Seema Khan

ABSTRACT

Vaccination is one of the most important ways to prevent or control the outbreak of infectious diseases. Vaccine wastage continues to be a major public health challenge. It is important to minimize this wastage for appropriate vaccine management. Against this backdrop, this study has delved into the COVID-19 vaccines wastage multiplication factor at the district level. It is a descriptive study. The total number of beneficiaries in a year in a district was 54,997,31 for Covishield while for Covaxin it was 10,755,48. Wastage Multiplication Factor was 1.74% for Covishield while it was 18.88% for Covaxin. The study will offer practical guidelines to stakeholders to minimize vaccine wastage and to evaluate and prepare ourselves for the future.

Keywords: COVID-19, Vaccine, Wastage Multiplication Factor.