TOKYO (Reuters) – More than 1,000 shots of the coronavirus vaccine were lost in Japan after storage temperatures deviated from a required range due to a freezer failure, the health ministry said Monday, the first case of wasted vaccines in the country .
Japan became the last member of the Group of Seven Leading Industrialized Countries to begin its COVID-19 vaccination program on February 17.
So far, it has received three shipments of vaccines developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech, accounting for approximately 1.4 million injections.
The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine should be stored at a temperature of approximately minus 75 Celsius (minus 103 Fahrenheit).
A medical facility reported that the freezer malfunction occurred over the weekend, rendering 172 vials of the vaccine, or 1,032 doses, unusable, the ministry said.
It declined to name the medical facility or manufacturer of the freezer in question, but said the freezer manufacturer would begin investigating the cause of the failure on Tuesday.
Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Gareth Jones