The count of expired doses of Sputnik V vaccines against covid-19 is not yet complete. The Public Prosecutor (MP) continues with this accounting in the context of the investigation opened for the purchase that the Ministry of Health has carried out of the Russian organic product.
The investigations began in May 2021, and after 20 months there is little progress. The case is in the IV Criminal Court of first instance and the hearing for the preliminary evidence is still pending.
According to Juan Luis Pantaleón, head of information of the parliamentarian, the doses remain in different offices of the Ministry of Health.
There are four million 824 thousand 524 doses of Sptunik V, of both components, expired between February and April, with which six out of 10 doses purchased by Russia have not been used.
The Ministry of Health has reported that these doses have not been destroyed and that they are currently stored at the National Center for Biologicals -CNB- at the request of the MP, as it is an advance test. They are located in a dry cellar, a van adapted for this purpose.
They were previously stored at -20 degrees Celsius in cold storage and refrigerated containers, for which the wallet paid Q40,000 monthly.
Domino effect
The first doses of Sputnik V expired on February 28 of this year, for a total of 1.61 million. In March another 2.7 million expired and the following month the last 873,550 expired.
This represents 60.3% of the eight million doses of vaccines that the Ministry of Health bought from the Russian company Human Vaccine and for which it paid Q614.5 million.
Taking into account the fact that the unit price of the Sputnik V vaccine was around Q76.80 – not counting freight – it means that the country would have wasted Q370 million on vaccines.
The first shipment of the Russian organic to Guatemala took place on May 5, 2021, for a total of 50,000 doses of the first component, after a wait lasting more than two months when the toughest phase of the pandemic began. . A second shipment with the same number of vials arrived the following month and another in June.
However, the second component has not yet appeared and on June 15 the first shipment with 60,000 of these doses entered.
The Sputnik V vaccines arrived in drops and the entire organic purchased from Guatemala was completed on December 30, 2021, but the expiration date was no more than a couple of months.
The low rate of vaccination against covid-19 has contributed to the loss of these doses with a short life span and the amount that has reached the population has been small. According to the Covid-19 Junta of the Ministry of Health, three million 28 thousand 843 doses of Sputnik V were applied.
18.35% of Guatemalans who have already completed the vaccination schedule (two doses) have done so with the Russian organic. While 283 thousand 970 people would have remained without receiving the second component.
disputed contract
On April 5, 2021, the then Minister of Health, Amelia Flores, signed a contract with the company Human Vaccine LLC for 16 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, and paid Q614.5 million in advance.
In July of that year, the Guatemalan government renegotiated the contract and said that the advance would cover the eight million doses to be delivered six months later, and that the remaining 50% would no longer be purchased.
The remaining Q614.5 million not paid to Russia was expected to go to negotiating more vaccines with other pharmaceutical companies, but it has not happened. In October 2021, the current minister, Francisco Coma, indicated that the deal Flores and President Alejandro Giammattei made behind closed doors with the Russians stated that Guatemala was obligated to buy more doses of Sputnik V between 2022 and 2023.
Regarding the purchase of more vaccines, the Ministry of Health has responded “This is a legal process that is under review,” so it’s not certain what will happen to the contract and whether or not the country remains committed to acquiring more organic.
According to Karin Slowing, an analyst at Data Laboratory, the fact that the investigations for the purchase of Sputnik V vaccines do not make great progress is an “example of protection of impunity, because there is not much science in that investigation, in the sense that the purchase has been made, paid for and there are technical reasons why the vaccines have not been given.
This, he added, is a reflection on the fact that neither the comptroller general of accounts nor the deputy have the technical skills to carry out the process, and the situation leads the state to incur additional expenses by keeping expired vaccines in warehouses.
While the investigations are not moving forward, the country has run out of doses against covid-19. It was reported on Dec. 9 that there were no supplies in the metro region, and an oversight by Congressman Orlando Blanco at the National Center for Biologics on Dec. 15 indicated that there were only 273 doses left across the nation.
It was until last December 19 that a batch of 302 thousand 400 Pfizer vaccines was received, which were acquired through the Covax mechanism.
Guatemala has lost a total of 7.7 million doses against covid-19, because in addition to the expiration of the Sptunik V vaccines, AstraZeneca and Moderna have expired.
The Ministry of Health has communicated that the latter have already been destroyed, as established by the ministerial agreement 534-2011. The Hospital Solid Waste Management Regulations classify expired or unused vaccines as bioinfectious hospital waste, and for their destruction they had to be incinerated or destroyed by some other system authorized by the health authorities.
