Malawi on Wednesday destroyed nearly 17,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that had expired in mid-April, with the health minister blaming “propaganda” for many Malawians’ reluctance to receive the jab.
“The batch which had expired (has) been withdrawn from our system and has been destroyed,” Health Minister Kumbize Kandodo said at the Kamuzu Central Hospital in the capital Lilongwe.
The southern African country has so far received three batches of the AstraZeneca vaccine 300,000 doses under the Covax vaccine sharing facility, 50,000 from India and 102,000 from the African Union.
Kandodo said the African Union batch had “two weeks of shelf life, and unfortunately, in those two weeks, we were not able to absorb everything, mostly due to the propaganda against the AstraZeneca vaccine.”
"The batch which had expired (has) been withdrawn from our system and has been destroyed," Health Minister Kumbize Kandodo said at the Kamuzu Central Hospital in the capital Lilongwe.
Coronavirus toll at 10:00 (GMT) Wednesday
Paris – The novel coronavirus has killed at least 3
406 803 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according
to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 10:00 (GMT) on Wednesday.
164 145 030 cases of coronavirus have been
registered.
The vast majority have recovered, though some have
continued to experience symptoms weeks or even months later.
These figures are based on daily tolls provided by
health authorities in each country and exclude later re-evaluations by
statistical organisations, as has happened in Russia, Spain and Britain.
On Tuesday, 14 243 new deaths and 621 664 new cases
were recorded worldwide.
Based on latest reports, the countries with the
Health by Matt Young and AFP 20th May 2021 5:07 AM Malawi on Wednesday destroyed nearly 17,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that had expired in mid-April, with the health minister blaming propaganda for many Malawians reluctance to receive the jab. The batch which had expired (has) been withdrawn from our system and has been destroyed, Health Minister Kumbize Kandodo said at the Kamuzu Central Hospital in the capital Lilongwe. According to the BBC, it is the first African country to publicly burn thousands of COVID-19 vaccine doses. The World Health Organisation initially pleaded with countries not to destroy any doses of the vaccine - expired or not - but has since updated its advice.