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Controversy over missing Covid jabs: Missing vaccine doses or missing data?

28 Aug 2021

  • Confusion at initial stages over number of doses administered from each vial
  • Health sector workers don’t have facilities like Army, but backlog cleared: Dr. Herath
By Maheesha Mudugamuwa As discrepancies emerge in data related to the national Covid-19 vaccination programme, concerns have now been raised by health sector trade unions over the overall statistics issued by the Ministry of Health. According to available statistics, Sri Lanka has surpassed administering 12,255,121 first doses (100% of the total population above 30 years) on 11 August and administered 6,464,296 second doses (50% of the total population above 30) by 27 August, after commencing the vaccination of frontliners with AstraZeneca in January. But with the alleged discrepancies reported in vaccination statistics, health experts doubt whether the total averages represent the entire population that had received at least one vaccine dose. As alleged by them, data of over 200,000 people had not been entered into the system yet due to the mismanagement of the vaccination programme especially conducted by the health authorities. Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Sri Lanka Association of Government Medical Laboratory Technologist (SLAGMLT) President Ravi Kumudesh stressed that the Ministry of Health had no proper plan from the beginning of the vaccination drive to record the number of doses that were being disbursed and the number of doses actually been administered. Explaining further, he said: “There were issues with regard to the total number of doses that could be administered from one vial, and in different places, different numbers were given. Some health officials administered 10 doses from one vial while others administered 11 or 12. Now, the problem is how they calculate the total number of doses when there was no proper data regarding the doses administered by those officials.” Kumudesh stressed that instead of providing strict regulations, the relevant authorities including those who were in the vaccine committee decided to keep the loopholes, knowing that those could be misused. “Vaccines had become a commodity of the rich, especially at the very beginning with the very limited number of vaccine doses received by the country. Therefore, the respective authorities left some space for corruption,” he alleged. According to Kumudesh, in the health sector, there couldn’t be any discrepancies reported with regard to statistics, as the sector deals with the lives of the people and there was a strict auditing mechanism in operation as well. “We can’t even take a panadol tablet from a ward without recording it. Therefore, it is a joke if someone says the health authorities had not kept the records. It is not because they cannot, but because they were not asked to do so,” he stressed. In July, during a television programme, Army Commander Gen. Shavendra Silva also raised the issue regarding data of nearly 300,000 people who were vaccinated during the first vaccination drive, saying the Army had computerised data from day one, but in the health sector, they saw a system of writing down data in books. As a result, data of around 300,000 that has to come from the health sector is yet to be entered. Meanwhile, responding to these allegations, the Ministry of Health said they had already cleared the backlog of data and that there could still be little delays in entering individual data. However, the Ministry said it had no effect on the total averages issued by the Ministry. Ministry of Health Deputy Director General of Public Health Services (DDGHS) and Disaster Preparedness and Response Division Head Dr. Hemantha Herath said health sector employees did not have facilities like the Army when vaccinating the people, and as a result, they had to enter data manually after recording them in the books. “Health employees are manually uploading this to the system and it takes time,” he said, adding that if there was any delay or error, those could only be due to human errors occurring while entering data. As he explained, minor delays in entering individual data could be expected from time to time with the expansion of the vaccination programme in almost all districts. “Since launching the issuance of certificates for individuals, the Ministry has so far managed without any interruption. The delay would not affect the averages but only the entering of individual data,” he added. A total of 12,255,121 Sri Lankans out of its total population of 21,502,636 have received at least one dose of the vaccine since the vaccination programme was launched in the country in January, according to statistics available with the Epidemiology Unit of the Ministry of Health, as of last Friday (27). Accordingly, out of the total 12,255,121, only 6,464,296 people have received the full vaccination with two doses. As of last Friday, out of 1,353,936 people who had received the first dose of the AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine, a total of 881,738 people had received the second dose, while out of 9,665,009 people who had received the Sinopharm vaccine, 4,863,109 had so far received the second dose. Furthermore, out of 159,088 people who had received the first dose of Sputnik V, only 25,489 people have received the second dose, while out of 305,639 people who had received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, 150,001 had received the full vaccination with the second dose. A total of 771,449 people had received the first dose of the Moderna vaccine and out of them, a total of 543,959 people had received the full vaccination. In addition, 2,865 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine as the first dose and 2,435 doses as the second dose had been administered to Chinese nationals in Sri Lanka engaged in developmental activities. As of 24 August 2021, Sri Lanka had received 20,800,964 doses of vaccines, out of which 3,200,000 were donations, 3,365,424 were received under the COVAX facility, and 14,235,540 were procured by the State Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Corporation (SPMC), as per government statistics. Chinese Sinopharm has been the main vaccine candidate in Sri Lanka, with 15,700,000 doses being administered so far, followed by AstraZeneca with 2,865,424 doses and Moderna with 1,500,000 doses. Sri Lanka began the national vaccination programme against Covid-19 after receiving its first consignment of 500,000 free AstraZeneca doses from India on 28 January 2021 and with the Chinese Government donating 2,700,000 Sinopharm doses on three occasions. Sri Lanka also received 1,865,424 doses of AstraZeneca and 1,500,000 Moderna through the COVAX facility. Furthermore, as of August 2021, Sri Lanka had placed orders to secure 49.25 million vaccine doses, which is even sufficient for booster shots. As of August 2021, the Government had spent nearly Rs. 25 billion for the purchase of vaccines and forecast Rs. 40 billion for future deployment of vaccines. In May, the Government also signed an agreement with the World Bank (WB) for additional financing of $ 80.5 million to access and distribute vaccines as well as to strengthen the vaccination process and pandemic response.

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