1,500 COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Have Been Wasted In Ontario Since December

It turns out that not all of the COVID-19 vaccine doses that Ontario has received have made it into people's arms.

The Ministry of Health confirmed to Narcity in an emailed statement that 1,500 vaccine doses have been wasted since the province began administering them in December. 

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The wasted doses would've been enough to fully vaccinate 750 Ontarians if each person were to receive the two doses.

The 1,500 doses only represent 0.1% of total vaccines received by Ontario. The ministry said that the remaining 99.9% were successfully administered.

"Vaccine wastage in Ontario is very minimal and uncommon," said Alexandra Hilkene of the Ministry of Health.

"Ontario’s health care workers administering the vaccine are doing an incredible job ensuring doses of the COVID-19 vaccines don’t go to waste."

The ministry cites "insufficient doses from a vial or vaccine storage and administration issues" as possible reasons why these doses went to waste.

Last month, Alberta Health Services was accused of discarding unused opened vaccine vials. However, officials disputed this, saying that there were "no reports of significant vaccine wastage."

To date, Ontario has administered 784,828 total doses of COVID-19 vaccines, with 268,118 Ontarians fully vaccinated.

The province has recently updated its timeline for the vaccine rollout, which now says that Phase 2 will begin in April.