DILI, 20 october 2021 (TATOLI) – The Ministry of Health had ensured to store the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines safe when transporting them to the regional and municipal hospitals.
“We know that the Pfizer vaccine has to be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius. Therefore, we need to guarantee the ultra-low temperature freezers are under control all the time,” said Vice Minister of Health, Bonifácio Mau Coli dos Reis, at the Ministry of Health, in Dili, on tuesday.
Reis said Timor-Leste shouldn’t repeat the same incident that took place between 10 to 15 June at the Guido Valadares National Hospital, where more than 700 people were vaccinated with ineffective vaccines due to the alteration of the ultra-low temperature freezers.
“MoH had prepared generators to ensure the ultra-low temperature freezers are always under control if there is a power cut, etc,” said Reis.
In addition, Minister Reis said the AstraZeneca vaccines will be expired within November, adding, therefore, MoH had been making efforts to reach more people with the vaccination, particularly the AstraZeneca vaccines.
“Vaccines are important to protect our population. Thus, MoH had been putting efforts to administer these vaccines before its upcoming expiration,” added Reis.
Earlier this week, Timor-Leste received a total of 100.620 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines donated by the United States.
The Pfizer BioNTech vaccines will be used to vaccinate children between 12 and below 18 years, which will protect nearly 48.000 children in Timor-Leste against the worst effects of COVID-19.
As of tuesday (19/10), of the 754.864 eligible groups in Timor-Leste, around 68.3 percent had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, of which 43.9 percent have been fully vaccinated.
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Nelia Borges Rosario
