The Presidential Task force on Covid-19 says 210, 000 vaccine doses are expected to expire in Malawi on December 31 this year.
Co-chairperson Wilfred Chalamira-Nkhoma revealed this during a Zoom panel discussion organised by Society of Medical Doctors (SMD), Malawians Health Initiative and Malawi Diaspora Covid-19 Response Group.
According to Nkhoma, the expiry of the vaccine doses is due to short shelf life of the vaccines. He added that there have also been misconceptions about the vaccines and these have led to low uptake.
“As of last week, about 210 000 doses were expected to expire by December 31, and we are delivering village-to-village, door-to-door because we don’t have space to waste some of these doses.”
SMD president Victor Mithi who was among the panelists noted that the levels of resistance will remain high in Malawi and more needs to be done to get many people get vaccinated.
In Malawi, a total of 1,730,888 Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far and 669,895 people are fully vaccinated. Government’s target is to vaccinate 11 million or 60 percent of the population.
