ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A package of coronavirus vaccines meant for the southeast Alaska city of Ketchikan were unusable because the shipment was too warm, officials said.
The 20 doses meant for fire department and public health workers had originally been sent to a bigger Alaska city by Pfizer, then transferred to be shipped to the smaller city of Ketchikan, the Anchorage Daily News reported Friday.
The transfer left the doses outside of the company’s mandated low temperature range for too long of a period. The vaccines that were sent on Wednesday to the city were deemed unfit as a result, said Kacie Paxton, public information officer at the Ketchikan Emergency Operations Center.
“The details of the shipment and process have been documented, and improvements are being applied to the next shipment,” Paxton said in a statement.
The city received a replacement package for the unusable vaccines on Friday. Some of Ketchikan’s first vaccines were administered the same day, Paxton said.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.