328 doses of Covid-19 vaccine wasted due to defects

THE Department of Health (DOH)-Davao reported that a total of 328 doses of Covid-19 vaccines were wasted due to defects.

Dr. Rachel Joy Pasion, DOH-Davao Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit head, said in a virtual presser on Tuesday, August 31, 2021, that out of the 328 wasted vaccines, 42 are AstraZeneca, 237 are Pfizer-BioNTech, 48 are Sinovac, and one Gamaleya Sputnik V.

Pasion said that some of the vaccines have broken vials and other manufacturer defects.

Before administering the vaccines, she said vaccinators must ensure that there are no defects in it and that the vaccinators must also inspect the liquid in the vial prior to dilution. A vaccine must not be used if it is discolored or if other particles are observed.

She said some of the vaccines appeared to have small black particles after they got punctured.

The health official said vaccinators must do the proper technique to ensure that no particles are mixed in the vial.

She also reiterated that they must also do the proper way of doing the vaccination and doing the process of vaccination.

“We have a problem if vaccinators are not trained,” Pasion said.

The official, meanwhile, denied reports of vaccines being wasted after these were not used or distributed immediately, thus reaching their expiration.

"Well collated po yan (It is well collated.). Each vial should have this much. So alam natin if meron silang hindi nagamit na vials (So we would know if there are unused vials). What we do would be the provinces should submit an incident report with the CHD [Center for Health Development], and through the [Davao CHD], we will submit that report to the NVOC [National Vaccine Operations Center], so that they can collate kung ilan yung hindi nagamit na mga vials (how many vials were unused), out of the total na pinadala (allocated)," she said.

As of August 30, Davao Region received a total of 2,403,770 doses of Covid-19 vaccines.

Of the total, 1,117,360 are Sinovac, 411,180 are AstraZeneca, 547,560 are Pfizer, 12,000 are Gamaleya, 143,850 are Johnson & Johnson, 121,620 are Moderna, and 50,200 are Sinopharm.

Out of the total received doses, 1,975,158 doses were already distributed.

There have been 868,567 individuals who already got their first dose, while 626,182 individuals are already fully vaccinated (488,732 got their second dose. Some 137,450 were administered with the single-shot Jannsen vaccine.