A total of 51 people in Niue who took their booster vaccines on Tuesday last week have been informed that the vaccine used was expired, according to a government statement.
Director General of Health and Social Services, Gaylene Tasmania, said that 51 people were administered pediatric booster shots, which had already passed its expiry date under refrigerated storage conditions.
“As soon as we became aware of the misinterpretation on expiry dates, we notified the 51 people and their families. Of the 51 people, 48 were 16–17-year-olds, and 3 were adults. We are working closely with New Zealand’s Ministry of Health and New Zealand’s Immunisation Advisory Centre (IMAC) on incident management and clinical advice,” said Gaylene Tasmania.
IMAC Medical Advisors say that it is not generally recommended to re-vaccinate the healthy 16 to 17-year-olds because the vaccine is very likely to be still viable and research has shown that the booster vaccines still provides protection.
According to the statement, the three adults are likely to be re-vaccinated.
Meanwhile, the passengers who arrived on Monday this week into Niue all returned negative results of their Day 1 tests completed Tuesday
