THE city government of Davao will return unused anti-Covid-19 vaccines from the Department of Health (DOH) that are nearing expiration, according to Davao City Covid-19 Task Force on Friday, May 20, 2022.

Although an exact figure was not given as to how many vaccines will be returned, Covid-19 Task Force spokesperson Dr. Michelle Schlosser revealed that these unused vaccines given by DOH to the local government unit (LGU) of Davao will be donated to other countries or LGUs in need before they completely expire.

“Since naa na ta for expiration and sa atong projected na mabakunahan is dili gyod makaya, then that’s the reason why we are donating it to other countries para ma-utilize na lang instead of throwing it (We have vaccines nearing expiration and if we cannot use them on time, we will donate it to other countries so it can be utilized instead of throwing it away),” Schlosser said during a radio interview.

She said the unused vaccines are because of the low turnout of vaccinees, “Mao na atong problema karon (This is our problem now). Gipalit nato ni na mga (We bought these) vaccines but we are going to donate it to other countries... because people are not availing their vaccines.”

Schlosser clarified that these vaccines to be donated were procured by the national DOH while a majority of vaccines bought with the Davao LGU budget were utilized in time.

She added that the vaccination cluster exhausted as much as possible all the near-expiration vaccines and administered them to street vendors, recovering addicts, persons deprived of liberty, and other similar groups.

In the meantime, Dabawenyos can still avail the primary and booster dose series since the LGU still has an ample supply of vaccines, which the majority are of the brands Pfizer-BioNTech, Sinovac-CoronaVac, and Oxford/AstraZeneca.

Schlosser said the Task Force and the vaccination cluster will still use as many of these vaccines as possible and administer them before the remaining will be returned to DOH.