More than half a million doses of Covid vaccines have been discarded in recent days in Rio Grande do Sul. According to the state Health Secretariat, the 513,000 doses of the Astrazeneca immunizer were sent by the Ministry of Health last year, under the management of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), already close to maturity.
According to the secretariat, the doses were received on July 1, 2022, with expiration scheduled for the 3rd of the following month. The lot had already gone through revalidation in May, when the expiration date was extended to August.
Data from the folder indicate that only 57.5% of the vaccinatable population in the state (6.2 million out of a total of 10.9 million people) have a complete immunization schedule against Covid.
According to the Ministry of Health, the vaccines were delivered after “agreement with the states and the Federal District, according to the receiving capacity and reverse logistics agreement, in case of unused doses in a timely manner according to the delivered batches”, according to note sent to the report.
In the reverse logistics agreement, says the secretariat, the federal government undertook to collect any doses in stock beyond the expiration date.
Half of the lot, however, had already been sent to the interior of the state and had to be collected so that disposal could be centralized. On the last day 10, the Ministry of Health picked up these doses.
The other half will be discarded by the folder itself, which should occur on the 18th. In the state, this procedure is done by a company using an autoclave, as the machine for sterilizing products and equipment is known. The material is then sent to landfill.
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