AS COVID-19 vaccines are expected to arrive in Davao City later this month, Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio admitted that the city lacks adequate cold storage facilities that can meet the requirements of the vaccines.
Duterte-Carpio said the city has existing cold storage facilities but they are only intended for polio and measles vaccines.
"Kung katong isa ka-klase [nga vaccine] that requires a -70 degrees [Celsius], wala na siya sa City Government (If you are talking about that vaccine that requires a -70 degrees Celsius storage temperature, the City Government does not have that)," Duterte-Carpio said in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio.
The vaccines that the mayor referring to are those of Pfizer-BionTech and Moderna.
Pfizer-BioNTech's BNT162b2 is kept at a -70 degrees Celsius (°C) storage, while Moderna's mRNA-1273 vaccine is kept in storage at 2°C and 8°C.
"Kana sila nag-require og (These vaccines require) special kind of cold storage," she said.
Pfizer's vaccine will be the first Covid-19 vaccine to arrive in the city, which will be coming from the National Government. Initial doses of the vaccine are expected to arrive in late February this year.
Medical frontliners will be prioritized for the initial phase of the vaccination.
BNT162b2 is the first Covid-19 vaccine to be issued with an emergency use authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
She said the city is not yet planning to procure a cold storage facility for now, unless the city's vaccination team will recommend it.
"Mupalit ta if muingon sila nga kinahanglan mupalit ta, pero as of karon, kanang atong City Health Office andam na sila sa regular na vaccination (We will purchase if they would recommend it, but for now, our City Health Office is already prepared for regular vaccinations [polio and measles]) because they have done it many times over already," Duterte-Carpio said.
She added, "Ang dili lang ta andam is katong duha ka bakuna nga dunay specific cold storage requirements nga dili available diri sa ato, dili lang sa Davao City (What we are not yet ready for is where we will store these vaccines which have specific cold storage requirements. Not only the city has this problem), but the entire Davao Region."
But the mayor hopes that the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has already considered in their plans the city's lack of cold storage facilities for some of the vaccines.
City Covid-19 focal person Dr. Ashley Lopez said in a recent interview that the National Government is under negotiation with several logistics and cold storage facilities that have the facilities and extensive experience to handle the vaccine, including Zuellig Pharma Corporation.
Lopez said Zuellig has a branch in Davao City, and the city, together with the Department of Health is arranging an ocular inspection in one of Zuellig's facilities in the city.
Aside from Pfizer, the City Government is currently negotiating with AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Janssen Pharmaceuticals (Johnson & Johnson) for the procurement of the vaccines.
Earlier, homegrown real-estate firm Damosa Land Inc. (DLI) expressed willingness to allow local government units to use the cold storage facility it is building at the Anflo Industrial Estate (AIE) in Panabo City.
But DLI first vice president Ricardo Lagdameo said the cold storage facility, which is 1,000 square meters, will be completed late in the first quarter or early in the second quarter.
"We are open to having vaccines stored here. In fact, we like to have the word out that in two to three months' time, the facility will be complete. I understand that many cold storage facilities are full so if there's a need to store vaccines, we would be happy to volunteer our facility," Lagdameo said on January 29.
He added that their facility can be as cold as minus 25°C.
In previous radio interviews, Lopez also said the local government unit is actively looking for additional cold storage facilities for the Covid-19 vaccines.