Cities exchange Covid vaccines so they don’t expire

The scenario of vaccination against Covid-19 has changed in several cities and, if before there was a wait to receive the immunizing agent, currently there are more vaccines. With the new reality, there are municipalities forwarding doses to others to avoid loss of validity.

There are also city halls that started to carry out campaigns to increase the population’s adherence to vaccination, even with a raffle of motorcycles and smartphones for those who take their dose.

Charles Cezar Tocantins de Souza, vice president of Conasems (National Council of Municipal Health Secretaries) and municipal health secretary of Tucuruí (PA), said that the municipality needed to send 13 thousand doses of Pfizer to Parauapebas (PA), for vaccines do not expire.

The decision was made because the vaccine is left over, even though it can be applied to adolescents and also as a booster dose. The city is unable to store the immunizing agent at high temperatures for a long time.

The vaccine should be kept at a temperature between -90°C and -60°C. However, it can be transported for two weeks at -25°C to -15°C. However, when removed from the freezer, it can be stored for up to five days at temperatures between 2°C and 8°C.

“The municipalities of Pará are doing this to avoid loss, this was agreed with the state health department. Many people are resisting because they think that Covid is defeated because of the reduction in deaths and hospitalizations”, he pointed out.

He explained that in Pará there is even a motorcycle and smartphone raffle so that people can join the vaccination campaign. For him, there is a lack of a more effective national campaign to mobilize the population.

The Ministry of Health was approached by the report to comment on the situation, but did not respond.

This dynamics of exchange of vaccines between municipalities, in the assessment of Conass (National Council of Health Secretaries), is part of the routine of a vaccination campaign and there are no guidelines to prevent relocation.

The concern of health managers with stocks was taken to a meeting of the Tripartite Inter-managers Committee. In it, one of the requests was that the sending of immunizations by the government be made in accordance with the demand of states and municipalities.

“This is no longer the time to distribute it according to the size of the population. In the beginning there was a lack of vaccine and everything that arrived was applied, but the current reality is different”, said Mauro Junqueira, executive secretary of Conasems.

“The municipalities do not have storage capacity, around 70% have less than 20,000 inhabitants and have only one refrigerator,” he added.

The chance of getting distributed Covid-19 vaccines back worries members of the Ministry of Health, as part of these batches may expire. The TCU (Court of Accounts of the Union) has already opened an investigation on the expired stocks of the Ministry of Health.

Like sheet revealed, the Ministry of Health let expire the validity of stocks of medicines, vaccines, diagnostic tests and other items that, in total, are valued at more than R$ 240 million.

This has happened with Pfizer vaccines and Coronavac stock in some cities. As the latter is not used as a booster dose, nor can it be used in adolescents, it began to run out of function.

In addition, many adults who can take this immunizer did not receive the second dose, in addition to those who chose not to be vaccinated.

According to Conass, the fact that adults over 18 are looking for health facilities at a slower pace, especially for the second dose, may generate an increase in Coronavac stocks.

“Coronavac has not yet been released for adolescents by Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) and the Ministry of Health recommends that the booster dose for the elderly is preferably made with mRNA immunizers, such as Pfizer,” he said in a statement.

The country already has 75.2% of the population with the first dose and 56.1% with a complete vaccination schedule against the coronavirus. Considering only the adult population, the values ​​are, respectively, 98.9% and 73.8%.

Paulo Ziulkoski, president of the CNM (National Confederation of Municipalities), said that the reality of the stock of vaccines is different in Brazilian municipalities. October survey showed that 25% were lacking immunizations, while 70% had vaccines.

“Of this amount, in 1.5% of the cities, more vaccines were arriving than necessary. This is because the municipality applied the first dose, but the person will not take the second dose and it remains. In addition, he receives more doses in the week next and ends up with excess. The municipalities are looking to make vaccination feasible by doing an active search, for example,” he said.