In the last two months, at least 200,000 vaccines from Covid-19 won in Senegal without even being used and another 200,000 should expire at the end of December, since the demand for immunization is very slow, as informed by the head of the immunization program on Monday (13).
The country is not the only one, the Nigeria will destroy about a million expired coronavirus vaccines, according to the head of the Primary Care Agency.
African governments have been calling for more Covid-19 vaccines to help reach wealthier regions where vaccine rollouts have been stalling for more than a year.
However, as the pace of supply has picked up in recent weeks, some countries have struggled to keep up.
Logistical problems, the short shelf life of vaccines arriving from donors and the hesitation of the vaccine have prevented the doses from reaching arms.
“The main problem is the hesitation about the vaccine”, said Ousseynou Badiane, responsible for the implantation of the vaccine in Senegal.
“The number of cases is decreasing. They ask: ‘why is it important to get vaccinated if the disease is not here now’?”
Senegal recorded more than 74,000 infections by coronavirus and 1,886 deaths, far below the numbers seen in many nations hit by the virus.
The pace of infection has slowed since a third wave in July led to an increase in demand for vaccines.
Occasionally, the country does not register new cases daily. But apathy undermines the vaccination drive.
Senegal has administered nearly two million doses of vaccine so far, Reuters data show, enough to fully vaccinate only about 5.9% of the population.
It is currently vaccinating between 1,000 and 2,000 people a day, Badiane told Reuters, up from 15,000 during the summer.
At this rate, he cannot use all the vaccines he has.
“We are not optimistic” about using the other 200,000 doses before they expire at the end of the month, he said.
“We don’t expect any increase in demand before then. “He didn’t specify the brand of the vaccines.
Part of the problem is the short shelf life of vaccines that arrive from donors that include the U.S it’s at China.
Senegal refuses to take vaccines with a shelf life of less than three months, but even that creates difficulties.
Badiane hopes the government can introduce some form of restriction on the unvaccinated to increase immunization rates, including the use of an immunization passport, as many other countries have done.
“Without the restriction, the population will not be vaccinated”, he said.
*With information from Felix Onuah, Reuters
Reference: CNN Brasil
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