By Joyce Ann L. Rocamora / Philippine News Agency
Some local government units (LGUs) will have to explain the spoilage of “a few hundred doses” of AstraZeneca vaccine that expired on Nov. 30, National Task Force Against Covid-19 medical adviser Dr. Ted Herbosa said Wednesday (Dec. 1).
The doses in question belonged to the batch of 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine donated and delivered to the Philippines in late October 2021. Herbosa said most of the shots were consumed, but a few hundred were not administered on or before Nov. 30.
“[W]e consumed most of that, [but] there are a few hundred doses that expired as of November 30, so that’s the one that we’re going to look into– the LGUs that were unable to inject that,” he said in an interview.
“The promise of [Presidential Adviser for COVID-19] Vince Dizon is really to do a show-cause order for the LGUs that had vaccines that expired because this is national government property.”
The concerned LGUs will have to justify the delay in the jabs’ administration and their eventual expiration.
“They’ll be asked to explain to the Department of the Interior and Local Government why [a] case wouldn’t be filed against them for wastage of government-procured or government-donated… government-owned vaccines,” he said.
Herbosa said a number of localities received the same batch of COVID-19 shots and were able to distribute the doses in time.
Meanwhile, he said the upcoming vaccine shipments will be well-distributed based on the receiving LGU’s capacity and needs.
“We need to map very well the distribution of the vaccines because some areas need more, some areas need less,” he said. “[As for Pfizer], we still want to allocate for the high population areas with ultra-low freezer. It’s very important that the cold chain is available.”
Pfizer vaccine arrival
Herbosa and United States Embassy Acting Deputy Economic Counselor Claire Bea, on Wednesday night, welcomed a total of 1,078,740 state-bought Pfizer-BioNTech jabs.
This week, the country is expected to receive over five million doses of COVID-19 vaccine either through donation or procurement.
Herbosa is optimistic the Philippines can further raise its inoculation rates as people are “not as hesitant anymore” as seen in the three-day vaccination drive’s turnout.
“The fact that we have four million in two days, four million who were given their first dose, is fantastic. The fact that many people are lining up at the vaccination sites, I think that’s also great,” he said.
“Even BARMM (Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao), BARMM was a surprise to us because it was vaccinating 300,000 a day, previously I think it’s a few thousand only. Even Region IV-A which was slow suddenly was hitting above their targets,” Herbosa added.
The three-day massive vaccination drive, dubbed Bayanihan, Bakunahan, from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, aimed to administer nine million doses. (PNA)
Health authorities said Thursday (Dec. 2) that initial reports show 2.7 million jabs were administered on the first day, 2.4 million on the second, and 2.4 million on the third, for a total of 7.6 million over three days, with reports from other localities yet to come in. PNA – jlo
