Good news: The Ministry of Health announced today (Thursday) that it approves pumping six doses of each vaccine vial instead of five initially approved doses, which means the vaccine inventory will increase.
Pfizer’s corona vaccines arrive at Kaplan Hospital. Photo: Gilad Shaabani Chopin, Kaplan Medical Center
The decision came after U.S. hospitals, which have been working hard in recent days to vaccinate as many people as possible against the corona virus, discovered a surprise in the vaccine bottles.
The medical staffs in the hospitals, which are in charge of administering the vaccines, were instructed that each vial is suitable for a total of five doses, but it turned out that even after five vaccinations, a vaccine remained in the vial. The medical staff dumped the remaining balance in the vials, with no orderly order from Pfizer.
Tonight the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a confirmation to medical staff that they can also use the amount left in the vial after giving five vaccines. “At this point, given the state of public health emergency, the FDA advises that it is acceptable to use any full dose obtained (sixth, and possibly even seventh) from each vial, until the problem is resolved,” the FDA representative said in a special statement.
The statement further stated that despite the approval, no quantities from several different vials should be combined in order to receive an additional full dose of vaccine. In the United States, the phenomenon has been criticized, and there is again concern that the vaccine production process has been conducted in an unsatisfactory manner.