In Jacksonville, North Carolina, the authorities have noticed a gradual downfall in the number of vaccinated individuals, and due to this, lots of vaccination vials have been wasted.
Approximately 1.45 million doses have been dumped into the waste. The health care providers mentioned this situation has made them limit the size of the vaccination clinics.
Along with this, Dr Arin Piramzadian, StarMed Healthcare’s chief medical officer, stated, “We used to have 40 different locations that are vaccinating at a time at the peak. In the past couple weeks, that’s dropping to about maybe six doses being given a day.”
Moreover, Piramzadian mentioned that the reduction in the vaccination rate has also changed the path towards the health care centers’ requests inventory from the state Department of Health and Human Services.
On the other hand, Piramzadian said, “We have tried to maintain a minimum amount of stock and at the same time, open a few bottles as possible to make sure that we don’t miss it. And the reason why it’s wasted is the secondary-open… these multi-dose vials, they’re only good for a certain amount of hours.”
Dr Susan Kansagra, North Carolina Division of Public Health chronic disease and injury section chief, said, “We do allocations to providers, and of course, we want to base that on what they need and what they think that they can use. We do try to work with providers to figure out what is best that they need.”
Furthermore, the state, as well as Piramzadian, encourage vaccinations even at the time when the cases of the COVID-19 infections decrease rapidly to stop the upcoming surge of the condition.
However, Piramzadian said, “If that happens here, then, unfortunately, we are going to see the same exact things.”
