The total number of vaccines Pfizer against Covid-19 collected in the city of São Paulo last week, as they have expired, is 53 thousand doses, according to a balance sheet by the Municipal Health Department, confirmed by leaf this Saturday morning (11).
Last Thursday (9), Edson Aparecido, holder of the portfolio, said at a press conference that the estimate was 8,000 to 10,000 doses. But, according to the secretariat, the situation covers 8,920 vials and each of them has six doses, totaling 53,520 doses.
The doses returned to the São Paulo city hall last Thursday would be enough, for example, to vaccinate the population of Porto Feliz, a city in the region of Sorocaba, in the interior of São Paulo.
According to the secretariat, vaccines were reserved for those who did not show up to take the second dose. Until last week, nearly 600,000 people over 18 years old had not gone to the clinics to complete the vaccination cycle in the capital.
“The guidance we gave to health facilities was to keep these vaccines at a temperature of 2ºC to 8ºC and then we collected them all for the central warehouse of the city hall,” said the secretary on Thursday.
According to Pfizer, the vaccine can be stored at a temperature of -90ºC to -60ºC for up to nine months, at -25ºC to -15ºC for a single period of two weeks and in a refrigerator temperature of 2ºC to 8ºC for up to 31 days.
In a statement, the State Department of Health said that it forwards Pfizer’s immunizing agent to municipalities with a validity of up to 30 days, as recommended in the package insert and the technical reports of the Ministry of Health, and that it is up to the municipalities to organize the logistics distribution of immunizing agents.
On Friday (10), the Health Surveillance Coordination (Covisa) of the municipality sent a letter to the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) requesting a longer period for storage of the immunizing agent. In a note, the secretariat said that it also sought out Pfizer.
In reply to leaf, Anvisa said that there is no request from Pfizer to change the conditions of conservation of the immunizing agent, “especially to increase the validity period of the thawed vaccine, which is currently one month”.
“The conservation conditions of a vaccine are defined based on stability studies conducted by the vaccine’s developer laboratory,” the agency said. “Vaccines are biological products and therefore compliance with conservation conditions must be strictly followed.”
Pfizer did not respond until the publication of this report if it was contacted by the Ricardo Nunes (MDB) management
According to the city, no expired dose was applied. The bottles were collected from the health units and taken to the Immunobiological Storage and Distribution Posts (Padi) in the municipality.
Aparecido said that the city offered the donation of vaccines to neighboring municipalities, but no one wanted to. “These cities are at the limit of their vaccination capacity,” he said.
“We are reaching the end of the process, with more than 22 million doses applied, and what could be consumed is gone”, completed the secretary last Thursday, saying that the city receives the vaccines sent by the PNI (National Immunization Plan ).
The secretariat stated that it triggered the State Immunization Program (PEI), requesting guidance on the course of action to be followed, in addition to suggesting a discussion with the National Immunization Program (PNI) and with the manufacturer on the deadline for thawing.
The Ministry of Health told leaf that has not yet been notified of the problem registered in the city of São Paulo.
According to the city, as of Thursday night, 597,534 Pfizer doses were stored in the city. The weak losers must be replaced by the state government.
Currently, Pfizer vaccines are being applied to those who have not yet taken any doses in the capital, for booster and teenagers.
According to a bulletin released on Friday by the secretariat, the capital has applied about 22.8 million doses of vaccine against Covid-19 and has already completed the vaccination cycle for adults — 22% of people over 18 years of age have already received the booster, which can be applied from the fourth month of the second dose.
In the case of teenagers from 12 to 18 years old, 77% of them are already immunized with two doses.
With the advance of vaccination of city residents, last month, the capital of São Paulo stopped requiring proof of residence when applying the dose at health posts.
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