Why 800,000 AstraZeneca vaccines expired

Hand of nurse prepares Astra-Zeneca vaccine before injecting patients against Covid-19 [Sammy Omingo, Standard]

Some 800,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine have expired as reports indicate that another one million doses of Johnson and Johnson could go bad.

The Ministry of Health explained that the AstraZeneca vaccines expired due to the low uptake by Kenyans.

Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi said Nakuru leads in the list of counties with expired vaccines.

“Every county has expired vaccines, but Nakuru is the highest with 35,000,” said Dr Mwangangi.

Busia is next with 27,980, followed by Kajiado (25,770), Kakamega (12,870) and Kwale (11,730). The ministry received 2.2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines in January through the Covax facility. The doses had an expiry date of February 28.

Dr Mwangangi explained that another one million doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine are at risk of expiry if they will not have been administered by April 15. The CAS attributed Kenyans’ laxity to get the jab to the reduced positivity rate and relaxing of the containment measures.

She noted a reduction in the daily vaccination rate, which has dropped from 250,000 to 40,000.