Nigeria destroys around 1M expired COVID vaccines

Authorities in Nigeria destroyed more than one million expired doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, Wednesday, even as the West African country’s vaccination rate has almost doubled in the last one week amid a spike in confirmed infections. 

The expired doses - numbering 1,066,214 - were destroyed at a landfill in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, a week after the nation said it will no longer accept donated COVID-19 vaccines with short shelf lives. National Food and Drug Administration Director Professor MojisolaAdeyeye said they "are one of the few agencies in Africa that tests vaccine before use" and that they had informed donors of this fact. Vaccination is also rapidly picking up in the most populous country in Africa, which has set an ambitious goal of fully vaccinating 55 million of its 206 million citizens before February 2022, although only 2% have received their two doses so far.