By Ireen Kayira
Malawi Government has cumulatively administered 240,744 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine in the country.
Minister of Civic Education and National Unity, Timothy Mtambo said this in Lilongwe on Thursday during the daily briefs on Civic Sensitization on Covid 19.
He also addressed the concern where some people are worried that the COVID-19 vaccine doses are expired.
“I would like to inform all Malawians that as a country we received different consignments of the vaccine with different expiry dates.
“The consignment in question had about 102,000 doses and only 16,440 doses have expired as of April 13,” he said.
He said this is because by the time these doses arrived here, there were only about two weeks before their expiry.
He added that the Ministry of Health has recalled all expired COVID-19 vaccine from all districts and facilities for destruction in line with government pharmaceuticals disposal guidelines.
“I would like to assure all Malawians that all those that have been vaccinated the vaccine was still good. Your Government cannot administer to its citizens any expired medicines let alone vaccines,” he said.
He added that one of the Government’s cardinal responsibility is to ensure safety of its citizens at all costs to make sure that citizens are provided with quality health products including vaccines.
“The good news from the Presidential Taskforce Committee on COVID-19 is that as a country, we have a total of 254,816 doses of the vaccine available for use up to July, 2021,” he said.
