• A health official is being investigated for vaccinating 30 students with a single syringe.
• The incident took place in a school in Sagar district where Covid-19 vaccines were being given.
  India’s health ministry mandates a “one needle, one syringe, only one time” protocol.

In the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, a health official is being investigated for vaccinating 30 students with a single syringe.

The incident occurred at a school in the Sagar district where children were receiving Covid-19 vaccines.

For Covid-19 vaccines, India’s health ministry requires a “one needle, one syringe, only once” protocol.

So far, India has administered over 2.03 billion Covid-19 vaccines.

In India, single-use disposable syringes are widely used to prevent the spread of deadly diseases such as HIV. However, due to a lack of equipment, a single syringe has been reused in hospitals on multiple occasions in the past.

Jitendra Rai, who was vaccinating the children, told the media that the health department had only given him one syringe and that he was simply following orders.

Parents who had accompanied their children noticed the problem and reported it to school officials.

When state officials arrived at the school, Mr Rai was nowhere to be found, and his phone had been turned off.

The state’s health department has filed a negligence case against him. Meanwhile, an investigation has been launched against the official in charge of dispatching equipment for the vaccination drive.

The state’s health minister should resign, according to a spokesperson for the opposition Congress party.

After China, India is the second country to have produced two billion Covid vaccines. To commemorate India’s 75th anniversary of independence, the government announced a 75-day free Covid booster dose programme for all adults in July.

According to the Indian Ministry of Health, 98 percent of adults have received at least one dose of the Covid vaccine, with 90 percent fully vaccinated.

On Wednesday, the country reported 18,313 daily cases and 57 Covid-related deaths in the previous 24 hours.

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