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MADRID (Reuters) – Pfizer has postponed delivery of a new batch of the coronavirus vaccine to Spain one day to Tuesday due to a logistical hurdle, Health Minister Salvador Illa said on Monday.
The company suffered an incident related to temperature control in the process of loading and shipping the vaccines, the minister said, adding that the incident has now been resolved.
“They (the vaccines) will be available first thing tomorrow morning at the vaccination points,” Illa said in an interview with the Cadena SER radio station. Spain began vaccinating people on Sunday.
He expected about 70% of the country’s population to be immunized by the end of the summer.
The delay in Spain comes after the vaccination campaign in Germany faced delays in several cities after temperature trackers showed that around 1,000 doses of vaccine made by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech may not have been kept cool enough during the shipment.
In a presentation this month, BioNTech said that once removed from the freezer, the vaccine can be stored for up to five days at 2-8C and up to two hours at temperatures up to 30C, before use.
Pfizer-designed coolers are equipped with GPS trackers to help companies deal with potential storage problems en route.
The vaccine, which uses the new mRNA technology, must be stored at ultra-low temperatures of approximately -70 degrees Celsius (-112 ° F) before being shipped to distribution centers in specially designed refrigerated boxes filled with dry ice.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro, editing by Andrei Khalip and Jason Neely)
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