Uganda will destroy expired COVID-19 vaccines worth $7.4 million following a slump in demand for the jabs, with more stocks due to lapse by next year, an official said on Wednesday.
The East African nation used a loan from the World Bank to import the vaccines, and nearly half of the existing stock of around 12.6 million doses has expired, Uganda's Auditor-General John Muwanga said in a report.
"The expired COVID-19 vaccine value at reporting date was worth 28.159 billion Ugandan shillings ($7.4 million)," Muwanga said in the report, which was presented to parliament on Tuesday.
Moses Kamabare, executive director of Uganda's National Medical Stores, which distributes supplies to all public health facilities in the country, told AFP that authorities would "soon embark on the destruction of the expired vaccines."
'Not receiving orders'
"We have not been receiving orders for the COVID-19 vaccines lately. If there is no demand from the health facilities, we expect more vaccines to expire in stores and unfortunately, this involves substantial amounts of money," Kamabare said on Wednesday.
Some 59% of the eligible population in Uganda is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng told parliament last October.
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