TOKYO (Reuters) – More than 1,000 injections of coronavirus vaccine went to waste in Japan after storage temperatures deviated from the required range due to a freezer malfunction, the health ministry said on Monday, the first case of vaccines lost in the country.
Japan became the last member of the Group of Seven major industrialized nations to start its vaccination campaign against COVID-19 on February 17.
To date, it has received three shipments of vaccines developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech, totaling about 1.4 million vaccines.
The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine should be stored at a temperature of around 75 Celsius (minus 103 Fahrenheit).
A medical institution reported that the malfunction of the freezer occurred over the weekend, making 172 vials of the vaccine, or 1,032 doses, useless, the ministry said.
He declined to identify the name of the medical institution or manufacturer of the freezer in question, but said the freezer manufacturer would begin investigating the cause of the defect on Tuesday.
Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Gareth Jones Edition