With more than 20 per cent of Manitoba’s eligible population vaccinated against COVID-19, health officials say less than one per cent of shots have been wasted.
At a technical briefing held with media Wednesday, Johanu Botha, co-lead of Manitoba’s vaccine implementation task force, said so far of the nearly 300,000 doses delivered since vaccinations started in December 2020, 2,348 have not made it into arms.
That puts the province’s total vaccine wastage at roughly .8 per cent.
“My understanding … is that is incredibly low given that we have essentially 300,000 doses administered,” Botha said.
“I think it is well below what we usually see in other immunization campaigns.”
It’s also considerably lower than the five per cent limit the province has set for an acceptable wastage number. The province’s limit is based on a standard set by the World Health Organization for what it calls “avoidable open vial wastage.”
Botha couldn’t say exactly what has led to Manitoba’s wasted shots.
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So far Manitoba has not established guidelines for immunizers to decide who should be vaccinated when opened vials need to be used at the last minute, including at the end of the day at vaccine clinics, or in cases of no-show appointments.
Currently, there is no national strategy on what to do with leftover COVID-19 vaccine doses. To date, those policies are up to provincial and local authorities.
This week Manitoba announced it had hit a milestone with 20 per cent of the eligible population receiving at least one dose of the vaccine.
According to the province’s latest data, 299,821 doses of vaccine have been administered since December, including 231,103 first doses and 68,718 second shots.
On Wednesday the province expanded eligibility at super sites or pop-up clinics to include those aged 59 or older and First Nation people aged 39 or older.
–With files from Brittany Greenslade and Katherine Ward
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