Israel to destroy 800,000 coronavirus vaccines if no buyers

JERUSALEM: Israel will destroy 800,000 COVID-19 vaccines that are nearing their expiration date if no country agrees to purchase them, Anadolu Agency (AA) quoted the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (KAN) Monday.

Although KAN did not specify which company the vaccines belonged to, Tel Aviv had previously purchased Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.

On June 18, Israel agreed to send at least 1 million Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines to the Palestinian Authority under a deal in which the authority would transfer an equivalent amount of doses to Israel from its purchased quantity from Pfizer scheduled to be received in September or October.

However, the Palestinian Authority cancelled the deal because the doses from Israel appeared to have expired and did not meet the technical criteria of the Health Ministry.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 3.92 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 181.3 million cases reported worldwide, according to US-based Johns Hopkins University.

-- BERNAMA