A TOTAL of 4,528 doses of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines have been put to waste due to storage issues since the vaccination program started in March 2021, a Department of Health (DOH) official said.
DOH Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje told the House of Representative committee on appropriations Wednesday, September 1, 2021, that vaccine wastage is very low because cold storage facilities in the country are well-managed and the people tasked to handle the vaccines are very careful.
She said vaccine wastage was caused by fire and wrong temperature settings, among others.
As of September, 1, 2021, National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said 51,900,590 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been delivered to the country.
Including the 703,000 additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine that arrived on Wednesday evening, the total volume of vaccines that the Philippines has received is 52,603,760 doses.
Of the total, Galvez said 44,804,170 vaccines have been deployed while 33,706,295 have been administered.
Galvez said 13,958,418 individuals are now fully vaccinated, constituting 18.1 percent of the target population and 12.67 percent of the total population in the country. (Third Anne Peralta-Malonzo / SunStar Philippines)