Canada intends to dispose of about 13.6 million doses of the “AstraZeneca” COVID vaccine, after failing to find recipients for them either inside or outside the country.

Canada signed a contract with “AstraZeneca” in 2020 to obtain 20 million doses of the vaccine, and 2.3 million Canadians received at least one dose of it, most of them between March and June 2021.

When concerns about rare and non-fatal blood clots after vaccination with the vaccine surfaced in spring 2021, Canada focused on using its large supplies of the “Moderna” and “Pfizer-BioNTech” vaccines.

In July 2021, Canada promised to donate the remainder of its purchased supplies, estimated at about 17.7 million doses.

However, the Canadian Ministry of Health issued a statement yesterday, Tuesday, saying that it will not be able to fulfill this promise due to the expiration of 13.6 million doses that will have to be disposed of.

Canada donated a total of 8.9 million doses of the “AstraZeneca” vaccine, and 4.1 million doses it purchased from the “COVAX” vaccine-sharing program.

About 85 percent of Canadians have received full vaccination doses, compared to 61 percent of the world’s population, and only 16 percent of the population in poor countries.