They wasted a thousand vaccines plugging a cell phone in Kyrgyzstan

From an unusual human error, Kyrgyzstan lost 1,000 Sputnik V vaccines by cutting the cold chain. The cause was that a maintenance worker unplugged the refrigerator with the doses to connect a cell phone.

The Asian country has acquired 20,000 doses and had to reject a thousand. The incident happened in April at a public clinic in Bishkek, but it was not known until this week.

“If the fault lies with one of the employees, the cleaning lady or another person, the clinic will have to answer financially”said Minister of Health Alimkadyr Beyshenaliyev.

The official had already been criticized last month for promoting a plant, known to be toxic to humans, as an alleged cure for the coronavirus.

Kyrgyzstan transits third wave of Covid-19 and records over 100,000 cases and 1,735 deaths, with a population of 6.5 million people.