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CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s prosecution said on Sunday it had ordered the arrest of three people after thousands of unused COVID-19 vaccines were found dumped along a water channel.
He said the vaccines were allocated to the health directorate in the town of Minya, about 220 km (137 miles) south of Cairo, where 18,400 vaccine packages worth more than 5 million dollars. Egyptian pounds ($ 319,000) were found missing. .
An inventory revealed that nearly 5,000 additional packages were lost from the depot due to storage at inappropriate temperatures, a statement from the prosecution added. He did not give the number of doses or the type of vaccine, but an earlier official statement said they were made by Chinese company Sinopharm.
Images posted on social media showed stacks of white boxes strewn along the banks of the water channel in Bani Mazar province, north of Minya.
The vaccines that were discarded went missing after being given by a licensed pharmacist to the driver of a health ministry vehicle for delivery to Minya management, the prosecution said.
Initial investigations held the pharmacist and an official at the management depot responsible for gross negligence, and they were taken into custody for investigation with the driver after giving conflicting testimony, the statement said.
Egypt aims to vaccinate 40 million of its population of over 100 million by the end of the year, but has struggled to increase its vaccination rate due to delays in supplies and some hesitation facing vaccines.
($ 1 = 15.6600 Egyptian pounds)
(Reporting by Haithem Borai; writing by Aidan Lewis; editing by Peter Cooney)
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