Malawi destroys over 19,000 expired COVID-19 vaccines

• Malawi becomes the first African country to destroy vaccines

• In all, 19,610 shots were incinerated at a hospital in the capital

• Like most African countries, Malawi got doses from the COVAX platform

Malawi has become the first African country to destroy AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines it received last month to kickstart its inoculation campaign.

According to reports, some 19,610 expired jabs supplied by COVAX, the global eqitable vaccine distribution platform, were incinerated at a hospital in the capital Lilongwe.

It was carried out in the presence of the Health Minister Khumbize Chiponda and other top officials on Wednesday morning.

The move follows an advisory from the Africa Centres for Disease Control (Africa CDC) which confirmed that expired jabs were not effective.

The WHO had at a point advised country's to hold on to the destruction of vaccines but a more recent position held that it was okay to destroy expired shots.

Aside Malawi, South Sudan is also on record to have announced similar action.

The DR Congo returned over a million jabs to COVAX for redistribution for fear that jabs could be expired by the time a full vaccination rollout was underway.

Privately-owned Nation Online newspaper tweeted photos of the vaccines being burnt at the Kamuzu Central Hospital.

A pictorial of the incineration of the expired Covid-19 vaccines at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe.

(Pictures by Jacob Nankhonya) pic.twitter.com/ddIMcSKHgV

— NationOnline (@NationOnlineMw) May 19, 2021