A senior health ministry official of Indonesia has said that 19 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country's national stockpile have expired this year and 1.5 million more are set to expire next month, as donated shots arrive with a short shelf life, Reuters news agency reported on Wednesday.

Lucia Rizka Andalusia told a parliamentary hearing that of the 19.3 million doses that expired between January and March 2022, 97% were donated.

According to Andalusia, most of the expired doses were AstraZeneca's (LON:AZN) shot and also included Moderna's (Nasdaq:MRNA).

She added that Indonesia would prioritise the distribution of vaccines nearing expiry.

Indonesia receives COVID-19 vaccine donations from the COVAX global vaccine sharing facility and from countries such as Australia and the United States.

I Gede Ngurah Swajaya, a foreign ministry official, told the same hearing that the country will stop receiving donations until April 2022 and tell donating countries that the vaccines donated must carry at least two-thirds of the shelf life.

The GAVI vaccine alliance, which runs COVAX with the World Health Organisation, told Reuters that COVAX "only ships doses that have been accepted by countries with full knowledge of vaccine type, estimated shipment plan and vaccine shelf life".

Indonesia's food and drug agency had said earlier this month that it had extended the expiry dates of several vaccines, including AstraZeneca's and Sinovac's, after reviewing new available data about their efficacy.