Officials handling the Philippines’ Covid-19 vaccination program expect the country’s total vaccine deliveries to surpass the 100-million mark by the end of October.
THE Philippines received its largest bulk of Covid-19 vaccines with a total of 9,596,270 doses in a span of one week, according to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez.
Galvez reported during President Duterte's Talk to the Nation on Monday, that five million doses of China-made Sinovac purchased by the national government composed the latest bulk of vaccines.
The country also received 2,774,070 doses of Pfizer vaccine donated by the COVAX Facility, 961,000 doses of Moderna, 661,200 doses of AstraZeneca and 190,000 doses of Sputnik V jab. (See also: Huge boost: PH receives 5-M more Covid-19 vaccines )
"We have now a steadier supply from Sinovac, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna, and COVAX," Galvez reported, adding that the country expects to receive 22 million more doses before the end of September or first week of October.
The vaccine czar added that he expects the country’s total vaccine deliveries to surpass the 100-million-dose mark by the end of October.
The latest deliveries of vaccines were immediately brought to the cold-chain facility of PharmaServ Express, the government’s national cold-chain and logistics partner.
The Filipino-owned cold-chain firm packages these vaccines in its cold-chain facility in Marikina before they are delivered to various local government units.
PharmaServ’s cold-chain facility was recently lauded by Galvez as “world class” due to its ability to store various brands of COVID-19 vaccines with different temperature requirements.
Three Israeli medical experts who recently visited the country also described PharmaServ’s cold-chain facility as “excellent” and praised the cold-chain company’s packaging and distribution method that ensures the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
Meanwhile, the company has assured that no vaccine was wasted since the inoculation’s rollout earlier this year.
“As the national logistics partner of the Department of Health (DOH), PharmaServ Express has ensured that no Covid-19 vaccine has been wasted from storage to careful packing and distribution to LGUs since April 2021,” PharmaServ Express, Inc. President Andrian Perez said in a statement.
Perez issued the pronouncement after a DOH official mentioned during a radio interview that 10,000 doses of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines have been wasted since the government began its inoculation program,
Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said the “biggest wastage” was recorded in a storage facility at a major vaccination site in Filinvest, Muntinlupa City due to change in temperature in the said facility.
The number also includes the vaccines that were damaged during a fire incident in South Cotabato and the jabs that were spoiled after a freezer was left unplugged in North Cotabato. There were instances that some vials were dropped or had no labels.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire clarified that the number of wastage is within the acceptable range of the World Health Organization (WHO).
“From Day One of the country’s vaccine rollout, PharmaServ Express assures the Filipino people that we have always ensured the vaccines we have handled are intact and maintained,” Perez stressed.
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