COVID-19: Lakshadweep reports highest vaccine wastage followed by Tamil Nadu, Assam

The Union Health Ministry on Thursday informed that Lakshadweep, Tamil Nadu and Assam are the top three states/Union Territories that reported maximum COVID-19 vaccine wastage in the country.

"Lakshadweep has recorded highest vaccine wastage with 9.76 per cent of vaccine dose being wasted, followed by Tamil Nadu with 8.83 per cent and Assam with 7.70 per cent," the Ministry of Health and Family welfare said.

"Manipur records 7.44 per cent of vaccine wastage, Haryana records 5.72 while Bihar records 4.95 per cent of vaccine wastage," the ministry added.

The nationwide COVID vaccination drive was started on January 16 for the Health Care workers. The country had launched its third phase of the vaccination drive on May 1 for people aged between 18-44 years.

As per official data, the Union government has so far provided more than 17.15 crore vaccine doses (17,15,42,410) to states/UTs free of cost. Of this, the total consumption, including wastages, is 16,26,10,905 doses.

The total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered stands at 16,25,13,339, according to the Union Health Ministry.

India on Thursday reported 4,12,262 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began.

With this, the cumulative count of COVID-19 cases in the country has gone up to 2,10,77,410, informed the Union Health Ministry on Thursday.

( With inputs from ANI )