The Ministry of Public Health reported that some 354,240 vaccines against Covid-19 have expired in the country, which represents a loss percentage of 1.4%.
The Deputy Minister of Collective Health, Dr. Eladio Pérez, said in a press conference of the entity that the majority correspond to the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and that expired on various dates.
Although Dr. Pérez could not specify how much money would be lost with expired doses, he assured that in previous years, specifically from 2015, there were losses that exceeded 14%, so the current percentage does not represent a great loss.
“At the time of your order, we estimate a 10% loss, an estimate that came from previous vaccination days with other types of biologicals,” explained the Deputy Minister of Collective Health.
“When we compare expired doses internationally, we can see that there are countries like the United States that have more than 15 million expired doses, other countries are Spain, Guatemala, Nigeria, the Congo, the United Kingdom, among others,” he added.
Likewise, he said the next batch of vaccines will expire in March and will be discarded if they are not used in the country or are not donated.
Pérez reported that more than 9 million vaccines are available and more than 70% expire in 2023 and called on the population to get vaccinated.
“The thing to remember is that we have the capacity and the availability to vaccinate. Vaccination is not a strategy to mitigate the impact of a pandemic, vaccination is a means of prevention”, he expressed.
The Vice President of the Republic, Raquel Peña, said last Tuesday that contacts have been made with other countries and that the State will be in a position to donate them in case other Governments so require.