Vaccine czar and National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 chief implementer Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr. said on Saturday (July 10) that the short shelf-life of anti-COVID-19 vaccines should not be a cause for concern, as LGUs are expected to ramp up their vaccination rate once they receive the supplies allocated to them.
“This was the same concern raised during the vaccine deliveries in May, wherein the expiration dates of vaccines fell on June 30 and the end of July. However, the LGUs were able to administer the vaccines immediately,” Galvez said in a statement.
“There is no issue on the vaccines that have shorter shelf-life because we can administer them immediately. We have no problem with that,” he added.
With the Philippines’ increasing vaccination rate, Galvez is confident that the government can administer as many as two million jabs weekly.
Some 1,124,100 doses of AstraZeneca donated by Japan arrived on Thursday night, while 2,028,00 more doses arrived the following day from the COVAX facility.
A shipment of 132,200 doses of Sputnik V vaccine arrived Friday night, while the remaining 37,800 doses were delivered Saturday night, bringing the total of recently received Sputnik V vaccines in the Philippines to 170,000. – PTV News/PG – jlo
