WINDHOEK, May 16 -- Namibia's Ministry of Health and Social Services Executive Director Ben Nangombe said Monday the country is to destroy more than 300,000 expired COVID-19 vaccine doses worth 1.6 million U.S. dollars.

According to Nangombe, an additional 42,000 doses of the Astrazeneca vaccine are also due to expire within a few weeks.

To date, about 412,543, or 23 percent of an estimated target population of about 1.78 million, are fully vaccinated, according to the Health Ministry.

The country is currently experiencing an upsurge in the number of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, driven by the Omicron variants sublineage BA.2 and BA.4 that have been detected in the country, while the Health Ministry also suspects that the Omicron sublineage BA.5 is also circulating in Namibia.

  - Xinhua