Government lists parameters to identify fake vaccines

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 5

Days after the WHO issued a fake Covid vaccine alert for India and Uganda, the government on Sunday issued guidance to states on how to identify fake batches of Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V being used here.

The advisory follows an alert from the WHO about fake Covishield batches in India and a nudge to the government to detect batches in public interest.

The health ministry has now listed specific parameters in its guidance to help states identify fraud batches.

In August, India gave more shots than G7 nations

• India on Sunday reached a significant global milestone in Covid vaccine delivery by administering more doses to its population through August than all developed G7 nations put together
• The Health Ministry data showed that India administered 180 mn doses in August, as against Canada’s 3 mn, UK’s 5 mn, Germany’s 9 mn, France 13 mn, US 23 mn, Japan 40 mn
• Cumulatively, India has administered over 68.46 crore doses to its population as per provisional reports till 7 am on Sunday

For Covaxin authentication, the government has said, “There is an invisible UV helix or a DNA like structure on the Covaxin label. This is visible only under UV light. The micro text hidden in the label claims Dots, which is written as Covaxin; there is a green foil effect in the X of Covaxin.”

For Covishield the guidelines are even more elaborate. Authentication details include — the text font of the generic name is in un-bolded format; the label is overprinted with CGS NOT FOR SALE; The SII logo is printed at a unique angle; the letters are printed in a special white ink.

The WHO had earlier said falsified Covid-19 vaccines posed a serious risk to global public health and placed an additional burden on vulnerable populations and health systems and called for urgent detection and removal of falsified product batches in India and Uganda to prevent harm to patients.