KATHMANDU, JANUARY 31

Staff and volunteers at a Seattle health facility administered over 1,600 doses of coronavirus vaccine that were expiring in only few hours after a freezer failed to function.

According to The Washington Post, staff and volunteers of Seattle's Swedish Health Services were rushing all night on Thursday to administer hundreds of doses of the coronavirus vaccine set to expire early in the morning after a freezer malfunction.

Health leaders were quoted in the Post as saying that all of the people who got shots overnight would receive second doses, no matter their priority in the vaccine rollout. Swedish Health Services and UW Medicine gave out doses of the Moderna vaccine, which requires two shots spread apart by multiple weeks. As officials at Swedish and UW Medicine became aware of the refrigerator malfunction, causing doses at Kaiser Permanente to thaw, they became prepared to put the vaccines to use, said the US daily.

It has not been clear what caused the freezer to malfunction.

Meanwhile, Swedish took to the social media to announce the limited availability of Moderna vaccine doses.