The Ministry of Health will destroy 16,440 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine which expired on April 13.
Minister of Health Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda has confirmed, saying the ministry has already recalled the expired doses from health facilities.
“Due to varying expiry dates of the received vaccine consignments, 16,440 vaccine doses have expired as of 13th April 2021. The Ministry of Health has recalled all expired COVID-19 vaccine doses from all districts and facilities for destruction in line with the Government pharmaceuticals disposal guidelines,” she said on Wednesday.
Malawi received 512,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and has administered 240,744 doses since the launch of the exercise on March 11.
Currently, the country has total of 254,816 vaccine doses available for use up to July 2021 when they will expire.
Kandodo Chiponda has since urged all people aged 18 years and above to go and get vaccinated.
The COVID-19 vaccine is being rolled out to help to reduce deaths, the risk of hospitalization and severe diseases from Covid-19.
On testing, in the past 24 hours, 617 Covid-19 tests were conducted. Of these, 145 tests were through SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Rapid Diagnostic test while the rest were through RT-PCR.
Malawi has recorded 33,891 Coronavirus cases including 1,134 deaths and 31,675 recoveries.
