nearly 17,000 expired AstraZeneca vaccines which was donated by the African Union. According the Malawi’s Health Minister Khumbize Chiponda, the batch received from the AU had two weeks of shelf life, and unfortunately Malawi was unable to absorb all the shots in those two weeks, mostly due to the reluctance of many Malawians to receive the jab.
So far, the East African nation has received three batches of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, 300,000 doses from COVAX, 102,000 doses from the African Union and 50,000 from India. Chiponda noted that the government “tried to assure Malawians and give them the faith”, but ended up incinerating 16,910 expired doses at the Kamuzu Central Hospital in the capital city of Lilongwe.
Meanwhile, the UN Secretary-General also reiterated his appeal for a global ceasefire in order to enable countries to focus on fighting the pandemic. He noted that while his request was welcomed by certain governments and armed groups, however, clashes still continue in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique.
