9 million doses of Moderna will be disposed of in Switzerland (MRNA.O) The government announced that 5.1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine that have passed their expiration date will follow suit by February.
The wastage is a result of Switzerland’s decision to acquire more vaccines than was necessary to ensure that its population of 8.7 million people would have access to enough doses even in the event of supply shortages or quality problems.
Hundreds of millions of doses of outdated Moderna vaccines have also been destroyed in other nations
The government issued a statement saying, “With this consciously selected method, it was accepted that too much vaccine would be obtained and that some of the procured doses would have to be sold, passed on, or possibly destroyed.
Switzerland has received 31.9 million doses of vaccines from Moderna and other sources since the end of 2020, of which 16.1 million have been administered. According to the administration, an additional 3.2 million were transferred to third countries.
The immunisation rate in Switzerland and its neighbouring neighbour Liechtenstein is just around 70%, which is low compared to rates in several other Western European nations.
Since the beginning of the epidemic, authorities have reported 4.2 million COVID infections and approximately 13,700 fatalities.