Director General of Health Services, Dr. Asela Gunawardena has informed the relevant officials to create extra doses of the Covishield Astra Zeneca vaccines from the liquid remaining in each vial which would be adequate to create more doses of the vaccine to administer to the public who received the first jabs.
The directive has been issued to all Provincial Directors of Health Service, all Regional Directors of Health Service and all Heads of Line Ministry Institutions.
He said it was natural that certain amount of liquid would remain in each vial after drawing the final dose from it.
“It has been brought to my notice that sometimes, the remaining liquid is adequate for the administration of another dose (i.e., 0.5ml),” he said.
Accordingly, the Health DG has requested the relevant officials to inform all the staff engaged in the Covishield immunization program to create another dose if there is liquid remaining in the vials. He said there would be a possibility of creating another dose after drawing the tenth dose.
“It is particularly important that correct amount of 0.5 ml per dose should be carefully drawn for each dose without wasting the vaccine using auto-disable syringes provided for immunization,” he told the officials.
“All the doses administered should be recorded in relevant registers and databases,” he added.
