Comptroller warns that more than 4 million vaccines could be expired between March 31 and April 30

The Comptroller General of the Republic warned that two batches of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine against covid-19 have an expiration date on 31 March and 30 April. In total, there are 4 million 449 thousand 30 vaccines, distributed in various regions of the country.

Cenares would have distributed the vaccines between February 13 and March 11 to the directorates of integrated health networks (Diris), regional health directorates (Diresa), regional health administrations (Geresa), EsSalud and the Metropolitan Solidarity System (Sisol).

According to the supervisory body, 2 million 443,400 vaccines would be due by the end of March. These were distributed with 22 of the 46 calendar days before their expiration. “That is, a short time to be used,” the institution said.

On the other hand, 2 million 5,630 doses will expire by the end of April, and have been distributed with 60 to 62 calendar days to expire.

In addition, according to the Comptroller's Office, on February 28, 8,580 doses of AstraZeneca expired in San Martín, Tacna and Madre de Dios.

HERNÁN CONDORI CONFIRMS EXPIRATION OF VACCINES

The Minister of Health, Hernán Condori, spoke on the vaccines against COVID-19 that have expired and those that would be ready to expire during the press conference on March 24, following the Council of Ministers. He pointed out that it is false that there are 6 million doses of vaccines from the Sinopharm laboratory with a close expiration date; but he did confirm that 8,580 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines have expired.

“Peru received 1.6 million doses that expired on February 28. Of that million 600 doses, 8,580 doses have expired, but a million as they say, not that”, he clarified.

“It is false that there are 6 million doses of Sinopharm vaccines to be expired. We have less than 5 and a half million doses that will expire between October 2022 and October 2023,” he added.

Condori also indicated that 2.4 million doses of Astrazeneca arrived on December 22 and 23, 2021, which will expire on March 31. Of that number there are still 1 million drugs left and they are being applied daily in the population that mainly goes to administer their booster dose. On the other hand, another batch of 3 million doses from the same laboratory arrived on March 1 and 3 and will expire on April 30.

“For almost the entire pandemic, lots with expiration dates close to two months or two and a half months have been received,” he explained.

On the other hand, Condori reported that since the end of January until now, 16 cases of the BA2 covid variant have been detected in Peru and that “it is being controlled”.

JUSTIFIES SLOWDOWN IN VACCINATION

On March 22, Condori spoke out about the worrying decline in the application of COVID-19 vaccines in Peru. He justified the situation by stating that before it was very easy to vaccinate the population because “there were a large number of deaths, people came and vaccinations were 24 hours and they stood in line”.

“Now since you don't see that... A little bit is also on our side as citizens. As a minister, I am in charge of getting vaccines, 780 thousand doses, I take care of the payment of the staff; but I ask the population to go to the centers of vaccination, let's complete our doses so that tomorrow later we can remove our masks and be hugged all family and friends. Here the struggle belongs to everyone, the authorities and the community”, emphasized the head of Minsa.