Belgium to destroy 6 million doses of Covid vaccine

Belgium announced that 6 million doses of Covid vaccine will be destroyed. The Minister of Health said that they took this decision to make room for new vaccines to be taken in the fall.

It has been reported that 6 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine in the hands of the Belgian federal government will be destroyed on the grounds that it will no longer be effective.

Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke told MPs at the parliamentary session that Belgium has a reserve of 15.3 million doses of vaccine.

Emphasizing that the vaccines developed against the Omicron BA.4/5 sub-variants of the virus are more effective compared to the first developed ones, Vandenbroucke said, "Therefore, we cannot use the first vaccines we have. These will be destroyed as soon as possible." said.

Vandenbroucke announced that 2.6 million doses of the vaccines to be destroyed were Moderna and 3.3 million doses were mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech.

PLACES FOR NEW VACCINES WILL BE AVAILABLE

Emphasizing that the cold storage cabinets, where new vaccines to be taken in the autumn will be stored, should be emptied, Vandenbroucke explained that the destruction of approximately 3.6 million doses of vaccines, which can no longer be used, continues.

1.3 MILLION DOSES DISPOSITED LAST YEAR

The Belgian government destroyed 98.5 million euros of masks, tests and drugs, which were supplied during the Covid-19 outbreak in April last year, on the grounds that their expiration dates were expired or that their quality was bad. In July 2022, it was announced that 1.3 million doses of vaccine were destroyed.

In May 2022, it was stated that 280 thousand drugs and 140 thousand syringes sent by Belgium to Ukraine expired, and 3.4 million euros of material went to waste.