Health: Poorer nations reject over 100 mln Covid-19 vaccine doses as many near expiry – Gulf Digital News

Health: Poorer nations reject over 100 mln Covid-19 vaccine doses as many near expiry – Gulf Digital News

Poorer nations last month rejected more than 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines distributed by the global programme COVAX, mainly because of a rapidly approaching expiry date, a UNICEF official said on Thursday.

The big figure shows the difficulties of vaccinating the world's population, despite growing supplies of shots, with COVAX getting closer to delivering 1 billion doses to nearly 150 countries.

"More than a 100 million have been rejected just in December alone," Etleva Kadilli, director of the supply division at the U.N. agency, told lawmakers at the European Parliament, adding that the main reason for rejection was their short shelf life.

Later in the day a spokesperson for the U.N. children's agency said that of the 100 million doses rejected, 15.5 million were deemed to have been destroyed. Some doses were rejected by multiple countries.

UNICEF did not reply to a query on the total of rejected doses so far, in addition to those rejected in December.

Wealthy countries donating vaccines with a relatively short shelf life has been a "major problem" for COVAX, a senior official of the World Health Organization said last month. read more

Poorer nations have also been forced to delay supplies because they have insufficient storage facilities, Kadilli