Thousands Of Doses Of Moderna And Pfizer Vaccines Are Damaged And Wasted In South Sumatra

COVID-19 Vaccine (Photo: ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The South Sumatra Provincial Health Office confirmed that thousands of doses of COVID-19 vaccine were wasted, each with 1,064 doses of Moderna vaccine and 3,276 doses of Pfizer vaccine.

Head of the Palembang City Health Service, Lesty Nurainy in Palembang, Saturday, said that thousands of doses of the vaccine were wasted because they were damaged and could no longer be used.

"It was thrown away because it couldn't be used anymore or it was damaged", she said, quoted from ANTARA, Saturday, December 18.

According to her, the damage to the thousands of doses occurred not because of the contents, but because the vaccine had been opened by health workers, but not immediately injected.

This often happens, for example, in a vaccination scheme, there are 10 participants, the health workers will prepare 10 doses of the vaccine according to the need.

But of the 10 vaccination participants, only eight people met the scheduled schedule. So therefore the two remaining doses were damaged and wasted because they had been opened from the pervial seal.

"Most of the participants are the elderly who often do not reach the targets that have been prepared", she said.

She revealed that the wasted vaccine dose was the accumulation of seven districts/cities for the Moderna vaccine and four for the Pfizer vaccine.

There were 70 doses of Moderna vaccine wasted in OKI Regency, 14 doses of Musi Rawas, 420 doses of Musi Banyuasin, 210 doses of South OKU, 168 doses of Empat Lawang, 112 doses of Palembang City and 70 doses of Pagaralam so that a total of 1,064 doses were wasted as of Friday, December 17 afternoon.

Meanwhile, on the same day, there were 300 doses of Pfizer vaccine wasted in OKU Regency, 518 doses of OKI, 1,524 doses of Musi Banyuasin, and 780 doses of Palembang City.

However, in general, the consumption amount for each of these vaccines has reached 171,122 doses or 76.5 percent for Moderna and Pfizer with 686,730 doses or 45.3 percent.

“Even so, the last stock available in the warehouse is still safe and around 54,084 for Moderna and 491,670 for Pfizer. To meet the needs of some time in the future", she said.