DOH still working on bivalent boosters

MANILA, Philippines — Delivery of close to 400,000 donated bivalent COVID-19 vaccines in the country has not been possible for the month of May.

The Department of Health (DOH), however, said it continues to work on the arrival of 391,000 doses of bivalent jabs coming from one donor country as soon as possible.

“Rest assured that the DOH is exhausting all efforts to receive the vaccines in the soonest possible time,” the DOH said in a brief statement. It added, “The department shall provide updates on the arrival of the vaccines once the shipping documents are finalized.”

DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire, during the early part of the month, said that they were expecting to receive the bivalent COVID-19 vaccines from a donor country by the end of May.

By mid-May, the health department said it is already expecting the donated jabs to arrive by the fourth week of the month.

But last week, the DOH said that there is a “slight delay” in the arrival of the bivalent vaccines as there are permits still needed to be coordinated.

The DOH explained that the “slight delay” was due to the identification and contracting of the local broker that would process and coordinate the necessary documents for the clearance of the vaccine shipment.

“A local broker has already been identified and currently working with the international logistics provider for the arrival of the donated vaccines,” the statement read.

Bivalent COVID-19 jabs are said to provide better protection against COVID-19 as they contain components of the Omicron variant and subvariants.

The latest COVID-19 Biosurveillance Report of the DOH showed that cases with different Omicron subvariants have been on a continuous uptrend starting September 2022.