More than 200 COVID vaccine doses wasted in Arizona

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) has revealed 220 COVID-19 doses have been wasted, or spoiled across the state. And, ADHS says, Yuma Regional Medical Center (YRMC) is on the list of clinics with missing shots.

According to the hospital, out of hundreds of Moderna vials they’ve received since the first allocation, two of the vials went missing and there is no further information of their whereabouts.

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This brand of the vaccine only lasts up to six hours outside of the refrigerator at a certain temperature. However, the 20 doses are simply missing and it has nothing to do with a broken syringe or spoiled dose.

The hospital has received 13,000 allocated doses to date.
 
All providers are required to document all vaccines through the Arizona State Immunization Information System (AIIS) which hospital staff has already done.

Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Bharat Magu, says the two vials are unaccounted for.

“I can't tell you what happened we just couldn't, when we were reconciling the data with the vials out of close to 100 vials, two vials are missing. And we did report that to ADHS at that point. Since then there have been zero discrepancies in how we are allocating and how we are recording that information,” Dr. Magu explained.

Although 20 doses are unaccounted for, YRMC says vaccine clinic crews have been able to retrieve one extra dose from each vial with the use of the appropriate syringe.
 
That means the clinic was able to produce 495 additional doses.
 
There have been zero wasted vaccines at the vaccine clinic according to Doctor Magu.