A state hospital in Kyrgyzstan was forced to throw away a thousand doses of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V, according to health authorities. The reason: someone unplugged a refrigerator to charge their mobile phone.
That happened in April in a state hospital in the capital Bishkek. The vaccine, which had become unusable for the refrigerator due to the interruption of the power supply, was part of a donation of 20,000 Sputnik cans from Russia. Kyrgyzstan only received this in March. Now the incident is causing massive outrage in the poor country.
Only 50,000 out of 6.5 million vaccinated
Burul Asylbekova, an official with the state sanitary and epidemiological service, confirms that the vaccine doses ended up in the trash because a phone was charged.
In Kyrgyzstan, the capacity of the vaccine is extremely limited. According to the authorities, only just under 50,000 people have been vaccinated with at least one dose of a corona vaccine in the country with 6.5 million inhabitants. (euc)