South Sudan to dispose of 60,000 expired Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines
South Sudan is planning to dispose 60,000 expired doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
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The Covid-19 incident manager at the health ministry, Richard Lako, disclosed this on Monday, saying doses in question were donated by African telecommunications company MTN and the African Union late last month.
“When it reached here we later discovered that the (remaining) lifespan of this vaccine is just 14 days,” he said.
He said that the drugs had since expired and were “already locked somewhere to be dealt with as soon as possible.”
Lako said the health ministry and drug authority were working on plans to dispose of the vaccines.
“The ministry is now engaging the African Union and the team with regards to that effect,” he said.
In late March South Sudan received a separate 132,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine via the Covax global initiative to ensure lower-income countries receive jabs.
However vaccination took a week to get underway and so far only 2,000 people, mostly health workers, have been vaccinated.
MTO/Nation
