Oga City, Akita Prefecture, apologized for disposing of 1740 doses because the refrigerator that stored the new coronavirus vaccine broke down and could not be stored properly.
According to the city of Oga, at around 9 pm on the 30th, staff members noticed that the temperature inside the refrigerator that stored the new coronavirus vaccine had reached 20 degrees Celsius at the Oga Shimin Bunka Kaikan, the venue for the mass inoculation. about it.
The city discarded 1740 doses because it failed to store the vaccine properly.
According to the city, the refrigerator was a commercial product made in 1992 29 years ago, and although it worked normally at least until the inoculation on Saturday and Sunday last week, when the staff put the vaccine that arrived at 3:00 pm on the 30th into the refrigerator. It means that the temperature inside was felt a little high.
The discarded vaccine was planned to be used for mass inoculation on the 31st and 1st, but Oga City is implementing it as planned by accelerating the amount for next week that has already arrived.
However, since the vaccine will be out of stock in early September due to this disposal, new reservations after September will be postponed for the time being.
Hiroshi Sato, Deputy Mayor of Oga City, said, "We are deeply apologized for the fact that we will be discarding valuable vaccines due to the shortage of vaccines nationwide and the insufficient supply from the national government. I would like to thoroughly manage vaccines. "