Covid: Instances of vaccination mistakes surface in Bihar: Cases of Empty Covid vaccine shot

A series of fiascos has raised concern about the arrangements, monitoring, efficiency, safety and accountability of the jab process in the state

Azhar Hussain being administered an empty Covid vaccine shot by a nurse.: Sanjay Choudhary

Dev Raj   |   TT  |  Patna   |  25.06.21  :  Azhar Hussain was given a “Covid vaccine shot” with an empty syringe in Saran district.

Sunita Devi was given a Covishield shot by a nurse and a Covaxin shot by another — all within five minutes — in Patna district.

Manoj Kumar — and 25 others in Bhagalpur district — received certificates on their mobile phones “confirming” they had taken the first dose of Covishield when they had not taken any shots at all.

A series of fiascos has raised concern about the arrangements, monitoring, efficiency, safety and accountability of the Covid vaccination process in Bihar, which has launched a campaign to inoculate six crore people in six months.

Azhar, who had gone to a vaccination camp at the government Urdu middle school at Brahmapur Imambara, around 70km northeast of Patna city, realised he had been given an “empty shot” only because a friend had videotaped the incident.

“I took the shot on June 21. Later that day I saw a video filmed by my friend Aman Khan who had accompanied me to the vaccination camp,” Azhar, who is in his early 20s, told reporters.

“I was shocked to see that the nurse just tore open the plastic packaging of a disposable syringe and injected me without filling it with the vaccine.”

It appears that the friend had not cottoned on to what was happening while filming the event, either.

The video shows a nurse engrossed in conversation with somebody as she strips off the packaging of a disposable syringe and straightaway “injects” Azhar. The clip has been widely circulated on social media.

“We have investigated it. The youth is well but is being monitored. The nurse, Chanda Kumari, was busy talking to others. She has been suspended and served with a showcause notice,” Saran additional district magistrate Gagan, who uses only one name, told The Telegraph.

Sunita Devi had been administered a Covishield shot at Belarchak village, Punpun block, on June 16 and had begun her mandatory 30-minute observation period when another nurse approached her and gave her a Covaxin shot.

Sunita, who is in her early 50s, says she had told the nurse she had already taken the jab but she ignored her. Sunita developed fever after the shots but recovered in a couple of days.

Health department officials, who monitored her condition for a few days, have issued showcause notices to the two nurses, Chanchala Devi and Sunita Devi.

Patna civil surgeon Vibha Kumari Singh told this newspaper that Sunita would undergo tests to find out whether coronavirus antibodies had formed in her body.

“If yes, she can take either Covaxin or Covishield as the second dose,” she said.

Manoj, an elected ward member of the Maheshpur Ghanshyamchak panchayat, told this newspaper he had visited a vaccination camp in his panchayat area on June 16 with his friends to take the vaccine.

“Those operating the camp entered our details and checked our Aadhaar cards,” he said. “Just a handful of people had arrived. We were asked to wait till at least 10 people came because only then a vial of vaccine containing 10 shots would be opened.”

As Manoj and his friends waited, a sudden rush of vaccine seekers turned the place crowded.

“Around 150 people had assembled, of whom 103 got themselves registered for the shot. However, only 60 were vaccinated and the rest, including myself, were turned away,” Manoj said.

“The camp organisers said their stock of vaccines had got exhausted and asked us to come the next day. We returned home but the certificates arrived on our mobiles.”

The camp officials did not explain why they had registered 103 people despite having only 60 doses, or why Manoj and his friends were not vaccinated despite being among the first to arrive.

Manoj said he and the 25 others who had received such false certificates visited the vaccination camp the next day but were turned away again.

“This time the camp officials said we had already taken the (Covishield) vaccine and should now come between September 8 and October 6 (84 days and 112 days, respectively, from June 16) to take the second dose,” Manoj said.

He said he and the rest tried to have the issue resolved but nobody at the local government hospital or the block office was willing to listen.

Manoj and some of the other aggrieved vaccine seekers, who are members of chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United, then began raising the issue at every platform.

All 26 eventually received a call from health department officials asking them to come and take the jabs on June 21.

“All of us took the shots. But when we asked for the certificates, we were asked to make do with the certificates we had received earlier,” Manoj said.

This means Manoj and the rest can take the second shot on any day starting September 8 although, going by the Centre’s norms, they should become eligible only on September 13.

Sources said Bhagalpur civil surgeon Umesh Sharma had conducted an inquiry.

“It’s possible that something like this happened at Maheshpur Ghanshyamchak,” Sharma told this newspaper on Wednesday.

He said such problems happened when a large number of people suddenly turned up to take the shots and the supplies were low.

“This happened while we were trying to increase the vaccination rate. Around 62,000 people turned up at the various centres but only 52,000 could be given the jab because of a shortage of vaccines,” Sharma said.

Altogether 1.5 crore of Bihar’s 12 crore people have been vaccinated so far, of whom 23 lakh have received both doses.