Malawi to Destroy Expired COVID-19 Vaccines Rejecting WHO Calls

Malawi decided to destroy thousands of expired COVID-19 vaccine doses ignoring the World Health Organization's calls for using them, RT reported on Sunday.

WHO and African Center for Disease Control (CDC) urged many African countries to use the vaccines that their expiration dates passed, asserting that they are safe to use.

The state's officials revealed that at least 16,440 AstraZeneca vaccine doses expired on April 13 and they were removed from cold storages.

The Secretary of Health Charles Mwansambo commented: "In this case, we cannot proceed to use these because the vile clearly states the expiry date. And any doctor, any physician would not be forgiven in the event of anything happening after knowingly used a vile that is clearly having labeled as having expired.”

In the same context, the Executive Director for the Health Equity Network George Jobe strictly asserted: "We can have phobia from Malawians which we should not. If the [expired] vaccines are safe, the CDC can take the expired vaccines, or WHO, and donate to the developed countries. But we have to witness the day the vaccines are leaving."

Malawi was not the only state that announced its will to destroy expired vaccine doses, South Sudan has announced the same act.

The expected number of destroyed vaccine doses could be more than 70,000 jabs.