BOSTON (AP) – Nearly 2,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have been pampered at a Boston Veterans Hospital after a contractor accidentally disconnected a freezer, hospital officials said Thursday.
Staff at Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center discovered Tuesday that a freezer had failed, compromising 1,900 doses of Modern COVID-19 vaccine.
The freezer plug was found to have loosened after a contractor accidentally disconnected it during cleaning, according to a statement from Kyle Toto, a VA Boston Healthcare System spokesman. The freezer had been in a safe place and had an alarm system, he said.
The system is investigating the cause of the incident and why the monitoring alarm system did not work. There are several doses, Toto said, and officials “do not anticipate disrupting” the system’s vaccination efforts.
Temperature problems have caused problems with the launch of vaccines in other states.
Nearly 12,000 Moderna doses shipped to Michigan on Sunday were altered after it got too cold. In Wisconsin, a pharmacist faces charges after authorities say he deliberately destroyed hundreds of doses by taking them out of the refrigerator for two nights.
The Moderna vaccine should be stored at normal freezer temperatures, but not at the ultra-cold required for the Pfizer-BioNTech shot.
___
VIRUS BY NUMBERS
The number of recently confirmed coronavirus deaths rose by 80 on Friday, while the number of newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose by more than 4,900.
The new deaths have brought the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths to 13,702 and the number of confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic to almost 468,000.
The actual number of cases is probably higher, as studies suggest that some people may be infected and not feel bad.
More than 2,000 people were reported hospitalized on Friday due to confirmed cases of COVID-19, with about 420 in intensive care units.
The average age of those hospitalized was 71 years. There were over 89,000 current active cases estimated by COVID-19 in the state.
The number of probable or confirmed deaths from COVID-19 reported in long-term care facilities increased to 7,857.