A hospital in Kyrgyzstan had to throw out nearly 1,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine after someone unplugged the refrigerator containing the vaccines to charge the phone.
The vaccines came from 20,000 doses of Sputnik V that Russia had supplied to the impoverished country of Central Asia as humanitarian aid. Kyrgyz authorities have come under heavy criticism over the incident, which was announced only this week but took place in April in a public hospital in the capital, Bishkek.
According to Health Minister Alima Kadyr Bishnaliyev, a maintenance personnel could be responsible for the fatal fault. The minister told reporters, “If it was the fault of one of the employees, the sanitation worker, or anyone else,” he wanted to charge his phone, the hospital would pay it.
Kyrgyzstan is facing a third wave of COVID-19, after a difficult summer when hospitals were already short of hands. According to the authorities of the country of 6.5 million people, more than 50,000 people have so far received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
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