Ministry: Three million doses of vaccine are at risk of being destroyed

BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – By the end of June, there is a risk that around three million doses of corona vaccine will be destroyed in Germany. A spokesman for the Ministry of Health gave the number on Monday in Berlin. There is currently more vaccine available than is used and can be donated. The international vaccine initiative Covax, for example, is currently no longer accepting donations. “Therefore there is a risk that the vaccine will be discarded,” said the spokesman. The demand is significantly lower than it would be good.

He called it good news that Biontech’s vaccine (BioNTech (ADRs)) can now be stored longer. Therefore, by the end of June, it is not assumed that 10, but 3 million cans will have to be destroyed. The spokesman did not comment on the cost of destroyed cans. That would allow conclusions to be drawn about prices that were not announced.

Initially, the ministry responded to a request from the Union faction in the Bundestag that more than 10 million cans could reach their expiry date by the end of June. The “Welt” reported at the weekend about the possible destruction of vaccines “in quite a few cases”.

According to the Ministry of Health, Germany had 77 million doses of corona vaccine in stock as of April 4th. For the period between 2021 and 2023 there were and are orders for a total of 677 million cans. According to the Federal Ministry of Health’s vaccination dashboard, only a few tens of thousands of doses per day were recently administered. Last December there were sometimes more than a million vaccinations a day./jr/DP/jha