Maximizing The Dose Of COVID-19 Vaccine From 1 Bottle 6 Doses To 7 Doses, Is It Safe?

Vaccine illustration. (Sam Moqadam / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Amid the limited number of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine compared to the number of people waiting for the vaccine. Maximizing the extra dose from each bottle of vaccine is also done.

For example, this practice is like that of several hospitals in South Korea. Nurses are authorized to use specially designed syringes to squeeze an extra dose of the COVID-19 vaccine from each bottle.

The practice has led to debates about medical safety, to commercial concerns from manufacturers charging dose-based.

The Seoul National Medical Center says the practice is actually a safe and easy process, one that countries struggling with enough COVID-19 vaccines shouldn't need to think about.

"Two designated nurses took turns to extract doses and each of us had no trouble getting seven doses from each bottle, vaccinating everyone", said Kim Eun-suk, an intravenous therapy specialist who took turns to extract a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The Pfizer bottle, the official one for only six doses, reported by Reuters.

On Tuesday, Kim said their party vaccinated 629 people with 90 bottles of Pfizer's vaccine, compared to just 540 who would get the COVID-19 vaccine if they followed the standard six doses per bottle.

"It takes about five minutes to extract the dose using a special syringe designed to minimize residual volume", Kim said.

"The extraction itself is not difficult. This requires squeezing the right amount with a syringe. The most important thing is sterilization and I think any nurse will be able to do it", Kim explained.

On the advice of nurses in various health facilities, the South Korean Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) asked if the hospital would use the remaining dose. However, do not make it a new standard, because it can be a burden to health workers.

National Medical Center president Chung Ki-Hyun said contracts with manufacturers that sell on a dosage basis should not be a barrier to on-site healthcare workers using the remaining doses when they can save lives.

"With care and precision, the extra dose is not too difficult to extract", Chung said.

It's unclear how many hospitals in South Korea are using the extra doses, but Chung said following official limits would mean dumping a potentially life-saving vaccine.

Experts are divided about the decision to extract the extra dose, as collecting leftover vaccines from multiple bottles could lead to contamination. However, with a special syringe, one extra full dose can usually be taken from one bottle of Pfizer vaccine, and as many as two extra doses from a bottle of AstraZeneca vaccine.

Urging caution over improper extraction, the Korean Medical Association (KMA) has advised its members to discard the remaining dose in the bottle.