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Up to one million COVID-19 vaccines are estimated to have expired in Nigeria last month without being used.
Interestingly, in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and home to more than 200 million people, fewer than 4% of adults have been fully vaccinated, according to the World Health Organization.
Curiously, The expired doses were made by AstraZeneca and delivered from Europe, with direct knowledge of vaccine delivery and expiry date.
They were supplied via COVAX, the dose-sharing facility led by the GAVI vaccine alliance and the WHO which is increasingly reliant on donations.
An insider even revealed that some of the doses arrived within four-to-six weeks of expiry and could not be used in time, despite efforts by health authorities.
A count of the expired doses is still underway and an official number is yet to be finalised, the sources said.
“Nigeria is doing everything it can. But it’s struggling with short shelf life vaccines. Now (supply is) unpredictable and they’re sending too much,” a source told Reuters.
The WHO said doses had expired, but declined to give a figure. It said 800,000 additional doses that had been at risk of expiry in October were all used in time.
“Vaccine wastage is to be expected in any immunization programme, and in the context of COVID-19 deployment.
Nigeria’s vaccine loss appears to be one of the largest of its kind over such a short time period, even outstripping the total number of vaccines that some other countries in the region have received.
The Executive Director of the NPHCDA, Faisal Shuaib once told journalists at a press briefing in Abuja that some doses of Astrazeneca vaccine donated by the UK government would expire in September and October.
Faisal had also assured that the government would make use of the vaccines before the expiration.
