120 COVID vaccine doses lost in Louisiana power outage. ‘Really, really unfortunate’
Louisiana suffered a setback in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic, officials said Wednesday, losing 120 doses of COVID-19 vaccine due to a power outage.
“A little bit of me dies every time we hear about a dose that’s been lost,” Dr. Joseph Kanter with the state’s Department of Health, said at a news conference. “We know how important these doses are, and it really does get at me.”
Louisiana has lost 146 doses in total, Kanter said.
The 120 lost over the weekend were doses of the Moderna vaccine, stored at an unnamed location in the Baton Rouge area, according to Kanter. Storms caused the facility to lose power, and the refrigerator where the vials were stored became too warm, ruining the doses.
Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine can be stored in a freezer at -4 degrees fahrenheit for up to six months, according to the drug manufacturer. In a refrigerator, vials can sit for about a month before they’re ruined, or 12 hours at room temperature.
Workers at the Baton Rouge site didn’t realize the refrigerator had lost power until they returned to work Monday, at which point it was too late.
“It was really, really unfortunate to receive that news,” Kanter said.
The news comes as Louisiana officials reported 6,882 new cases, the highest number of new cases recorded in a single day in the state.
“There is more COVID circulating in this state now than at any other time during the pandemic,” Kanter said.
As thousands of vaccine doses are distributed around the state, and with millions more on the way in the months ahead, an end to the pandemic is likely nearing. But until then, it’s here and deadly as ever, Kanter cautioned.
“This is the most dangerous time of the pandemic for us, it’s right now … We haven’t peaked.”
The outage in Louisiana appears to have caused the largest single accidental loss of coronavirus vaccine reported since doses were first shipped out to states across the country.
In Wisconsin, 500 doses were ruined after they were left out at room temperature, McClatchy News reported, but the pharmacist responsible later admitted that he destroyed the doses on purpose. He was later arrested.
New Mexico officials were forced to throw out 75 doses of vaccine because they were possibly overheated while being transported from a state health department warehouse to a community hospital, the Sante Fe New Mexican reported.
This story was originally published January 6, 2021 at 7:42 PM with the headline "120 COVID vaccine doses lost in Louisiana power outage. ‘Really, really unfortunate’."