Understanding Covid-19 vaccines disposal process

Kenya on Wednesday announced that more than 840,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines had expired, with another one million Johnson and Johnson at risk of expiry if unutilised in the next three weeks.

Vaccines deployment taskforce chair Willis Akhwale noted that the government had already alerted Covax on the expiries.

“We are going to collect all those expired and we are going to use centres that have incineration so that they will be burnt so that they will not be a danger to the environment,” he said.

What is the standard operating procedure recommended by the World Health Organisation on how to manage discarded or expired Covid-19 vaccine vials and associated waste?

The WHO guidelines provide clear instructions on how countries should appropriately treat and safely dispose off these wastes to minimise any associated health risk.

The global health agency notes that used Covid-19 vaccine vials and ancillary supplies are considered infectious material, and must be correctly and safely stored, collected, treated and disposed, under the supervision of well trained staff.

Countries are therefore required to incorporate the management of used and discarded Covid-19 vaccine vials and associated waste in their vaccination campaign operational plan with clear budget line items.

The guidelines stipulate that before subjecting the vaccine vials to any treatment procedures, all vial caps and labels should be removed if any, to ensure effective treatment.

The caps should then be collected in a plastic bag and set aside for incineration.

WHO recommends disinfection of used vials with 0.5 per cent chlorine. The quantity of the solution should be enough to completely fill the plastic container with discarded vials.

“Using heavy-duty gloves, submerge the vials in the chlorine solution making sure the disinfecting solution gets inside each of them and reaching all surfaces. Let them react for at least 30 minutes,” the guidelines say.

“After the 30-minute reaction time, remove all vials from the disinfecting solution. Make sure you are wearing heavy-duty gloves and all vials are emptied. Collect the vials for their final disposal,” WHO adds.

Once done, the chlorine solution should be disposed in a safe and appropriate manner to protect the environment and water bodies.

According to WHO, staff in charge of transporting waste should wear gloves and goggles to prevent leakage of toxic reagents and other products during transport.

It is recommended to use vans, pick-ups or similar vehicles which have a separate driving zone from the cargo zone to ensure protection of the staff.

Further, all used syringes and sharp wastes must be treated by incineration, preferably using an appropriate incinerator that is able to reach high temperatures, with double chamber to reduce emissions of toxic gases.

The ashes should be disposed of inside a dedicated ash pit.

“Neutralised Covid-19 vaccine vials can be safely disposed in a manner that is not accessible or reusable, and neither being an environmental nor a health threat.”

In the absence of dedicated structure such as sharps pit, WHO recommends that used sharp waste may be encapsulated and not crushed to prevent them from being reused and accessible, and no longer pose a risk to both the population and environment.