Thousands of donated COVID-19 vaccines have been damaged in storage at the Samoa Ministry of Health, hampering the government vaccination program.
Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa told the media yesterday that a faulty freezer used for storage has affected the quality of the vaccines, including doses donated by the Australian government last month.
She said the Cabinet was meeting yesterday to discuss a report from MOH regarding the vaccines.
“These vaccines include 10,000 from Australia that arrived on the same week we had the flight where we had positive cases.”
She added that it seemed that a portion of the Australian vaccines had been damaged.
Samoa Observer reports that M.O.H. officials said some of the doses that were delivered to district hospitals were brought back to the main vaccination sites.
One official said that there are still AstraZeneca vaccines available but not the Pfizer vaccine which is used for children under 18 years of age.
The Australian government donated 10,000 AstraZeneca vaccines earlier this month with Australian High Commissioner Emily Luck saying then that more than 60,000 doses had been donated so far from her government.
“This is part of our commitment to ensure comprehensive coverage in the Pacific and we have offered to share more if needed later.”
The New Zealand government also announced it was donating 10,000 of the Pfizer vaccine but it is not clear if they are part of the contaminated doses.
