Authorities on June 2 inspected PharmaServ Express in Marikina City, the central storage facility of COVID-19 vaccines, to ensure that the cold storage requirement of each vaccine brand will not be disrupted.
The Marikina City local government unit (LGU), Department of Health (DOH), and Meralco representatives inspected PharmaServ Express to secure a contingency plan amid the rotational power service interruption due to low power supply in the Luzon grid.
About 30,000 Sinovac vaccine doses, more than 6,000 doses of Sputnik V, and 900 doses of Pfizer vaccines are currently stored in the facility.
“Pagdating sa power interruption, mayroon tayong contingency measures bukod doon sa iba pa na pwede nating gawin in the event na magkaroon man ng power outage dito sa Marikina,” PharmaServ Express President Adrian Perez said.
He added that the facility has prepared two generator sets to supply power in the event of a brownout in the area.
Marikina City Mayor Marcy Teodoro said the LGU is in close communication with Meralco to ensure that there will be no power disruptions in the area where the cold storage facility is located.
According to the Department of Energy (DOE), the rotational power service interruption remains balanced so as not to affect the priority areas such as hospitals and other cold storage facilities.
“Dahil panahon ng COVID ngayon, kailangan po nating mabantayan ‘yung refrigeration at pagpapalamig ng storage ng ating bakuna. Tinitingnan din natin ‘yung distribution utilities kung na-pro-proteksyunan [ang mga bakuna],” said DOE Undersecretary Felix Fuentabella.
– Report from Patrick De Jesus / CF-jlo
