The Belgian government has announced it will destroy nearly 6 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines for being “outdated”.
Health minister Frank Vandenbroucke said on Monday that “significantly more effective vaccines” will be administered instead.
“Several studies show that the vaccines adapted to BA.4/5 sub-variants are significantly more effective than the original vaccines against Covid-19,” said Vandenbroucke when he appeared before parliament’s Health committee.
According to the minister, Belgium “cannot use anymore the surplus of original vaccines”.
He said some 2.6 million doses of Moderna and about 3.3 million doses of Pfizer jabs will be “destroyed as soon as possible”.
Vandebroucke said the decision was arrived at because “new types of vaccines have been developed”.
The health minister also said that Belgium “will not store in freezers the vaccines that cannot be used in the country nor will they be donated”.
