GABORONE, April 9 (Xinhua) -- At least 29,000 AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines have already expired and some will expire at the end of April in Botswana, an official said Saturday.
"It is true that vaccines have expired. So far, 29,000 AstraZeneca vaccines have already expired," said Christopher Nyanga, the spokesperson for Botswana's Ministry of Health and Wellness.
Some vaccines will be expiring in April 2022 if they would not have been used by the time they reach the expiry date, Nyanga said. He urged the citizens of the southern African country to visit vaccination centers in numbers and be inoculated before the unused vaccines expire.
Dr. Edwin Dikoloti, Botswana's Health and Wellness Minister, last week urged legislators of the country to encourage more people to vaccinate.
Although Botswana has done exceptionally well in its COVID-19 vaccination drive to become one of the few first African countries to achieve the 40 percent World Health Organization vaccination target of the entire population by Dec. 2021, booster shot numbers have slowed down, Dikoloti said.
Botswana started its vaccination program on March 27, 2021. So far at least 59.2 percent of the population has got the first dose. ■