On Tuesday, the 17th of December, the Latvian government decided to grant the Ministry of Health another EUR 1.3 million from the budget for emergencies in order to cover Covid-19 vaccine procurement costs.
The ministry explains that expenses appeared because of Covid-19 pandemic. Funding of EUR 1 241 292 was provided to pay for vaccine procurement, storage and logistics.
According to the ministry, the funding allocated to limit the spread of the infection was “used up completely”.
Vaccination against Covid-19 has been low lately. The ministry admits as much. For example, only 15 632 Latvian residents were vaccinated for Covid-19 this autumn, according to monitoring data from the Disease Monitoring and Prevention Centre. The Covid-19 vaccines were procured during the pandemic but remain largely unused.
In total, Latvia procured 171 360 Covid-19 vaccine doses for this season. 155 520 doses are available, as confirmed by the National Health Service. There are six types of vaccines available for small children and adults.
At the beginning of November, the Latvian government had decided about diverting EUR 2 880 227 towards procurement of Covid-19 vaccines, storage, logistics, syringes and injection fluids. EUR 13 329 was spent on Covid-19 jabs between January and June. In that six-month period, however, Latvia was also forced to destroy 606 594 vaccine doses because of zero demand both domestically and internationally.
Members of the Saeima’s Budget and Finance Committee had previously asked representatives of the Ministry of Health questions as to how long Latvia will continue procuring Covid-19 vaccines, considering there is no longer a demand in Latvia.
Deputy State Secretary to the Ministry of Health Boriss Kņigins explained that the contracts with pharmaceutical manufacturers were signed by the European Commission on behalf of all Member States and that negotiations with the European Commission and manufacturers on the termination of these contracts or changes in conditions have not been successful so far. Vaccines will still be delivered until the end of 2026.
Under the agreements, 193 000 vaccines will be delivered in 2025 and 156 000 in 2026. Vaccine procurement costs are around EUR 5 million a year.
An agreement was reached with manufacturers that part of the volume of vaccines ordered in previous agreements is not supplied by the manufacturers and Latvia pays half of the price for them, as explained by representatives of the Ministry of Health.
In the first half of this year, the country has had to destroy 606 594 doses of vaccines, including 487 234 doses of Pfizer and 119 360 doses of Novavax.
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Publish date : 2024-12-17 04:04:00
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