The Ugandan government is on the verge of destroying at least 150,000 doses of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines.
The vaccines were a donation from the Mauritius government in March but the Ugandan Ministry of Health may be set to crush the vaccines.
Decision to destroy the vaccines is coming on the back of a letter written and sent on the 13th of April by the National Drug Authority Chairperson, Dr. Medard Bitekyerezo to the Minister of Health, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng. The letter had stated that it was found on inspection that the vaccines were not fit for use as there were issues in their importation and storage.
The vaccines cost $30/dose and destorying 150,000 doses means the nation is losing $4.5m (Shs17b) in donations.
There were issues with the handling of the vaccines on arrival with Dr. Bitekyerezo revealing that they weren’t told before the vaccines arrived on March 1st. The vaccines came aboard Kenyan Airways and were said to have lacked temperature data loggers.
The vaccines’ expiry dates were set for August 10th but will be destroyed as a result of the stated discrepancies.
“The inspectors were unable to ascertain the integrity of the cold chain system during storage over the last month. Furthermore, the certificate of analysis and independent Lot release certificate for the Covid-19 vaccine (Vero cell/Sinopharm), inactivated Lot No. 202108B2331 were not shared,” Dr. Bitekyerezo wrote to Dr Aceng.
“It is against this background that NDA rejects this consignment of the Covid-19 vaccine as we can’t assure the public of the safety, quality and potency
At least 16 million Ugandans have been vaccinated with one shot of the vaccine while 10.9million have been fully vaccinated.