PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has instructed local government units (LGUs) to prepare the facilities needed to immediately administer the vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) upon arrival.
“I am just saying this because I do not want to lose the battle here through negligence,” he stressed in a televised meeting with some Cabinet members Thursday night, May 13, 2021.
He said the infrastructure for the vaccination program has to be ready to ensure that the vaccines do no go to waste.
Vaccines require different storage conditions. As of May 11, the Philippines has received four brands of Covid-19 vaccines, namely, CoronaVac from Sinovac, AstraZeneca-Oxford, Sputnik V from Gamaleya and Pfizer-BioNTech.
Sinovac and AstraZeneca may be stored in regular refrigerators at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius while Sputnik V requires a temperature of -18 degree Celsius. Pfizer vaccines require ultra-low freezers with average temperature of -70 degree Celsius.
Earlier, the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed that some of the AstraZeneca vaccines that arrived will expire by June 30, 2021 and the others by July 31, 2021.
“We know that you can do it but see to it that the mechanism, ‘yong infrastructure ninyo sa baba kailangan must be able to come up with the numbers required kasi itong mga bakuna may expiry date. It cannot be effective forever. The efficacy loses in a less period of time than other medications,” Duterte said.
“So kailangan pagdating doon sa inyo mapatakbo na kaagad ninyo ‘yong administrative pati siguro mga local — may mga hospital. Magtulung-tulungan na lang so that we would not waste the vaccines because we were not able to deliver it on time,” he added.
In the same meeting, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said deployment of vaccines is based on economic, social and health risks.
He said among the focus areas are the National Capital Region, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Metro Cebu and Metro Davao.
Galvez said the NCR plus will get 3.3 million doses every month while Cebu and Davao will get 400,000 doses each monthly.
“Ang gagawin po talaga natin is ‘yong tinatawag nating focus targeting para ‘yong centers of gravity iyon kaagad ang ating i-strengthen para ‘yong risk mawala po, sir,” said Galvez.
As of May 11, the Philippines has received 7,779,050 doses, consisting of 5.0 million CoronaVac, 2.556 million AstraZeneca, 193,050 Pfizer and 30,000 Sputnik.
More than two million individuals have received the vaccine since inoculations began on March 1, 2021. (Third Anne Peralta-Malonzo / SunStar Philippines)