202 doses of COVID-19 vaccines wasted in Cebu

CEBU, Philippines —  At least 202 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been wasted in Cebu six months into the government vaccination rollout, said Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of the Visayas Vaccination Operation Center (VVOC). 

Loreche, who is also the chief pathologist of DOH-7, said of the 202 doses wasted, 74 were in Cebu Province, 86 in Cebu City, three doses in Lapu-Lapu City and one dose from Mandaue City.

She cited incomplete number of vaccinees in a multi dose vial; extraction technique by the aspirator; and vial issues among the reasons of the wastage.

The Department of Health (DOH)-7 is encouraging all government units in the region to immediately use their available COVID-19 vaccines to avoid wastage.

 “As emphasized by President Duterte the COVID-19 vaccines as precious or more precious than gold. Any dose wasted is unacceptable because all of these particular doses have been labored to be procured by the government,” said Dr. Van Phillip Baton, DOH-7 medical coordinator for infectious diseases, in a virtual press conference yesterday.

Baton said these vaccine wastage happened during the early part of the vaccination rollout. Baton has advised local government units “not to open the vaccine unless the vaccinees are already present sitting in front of you”.

He added that all the vaccines are regularly monitored in the storage to ensure that they are in appropriate storage temperature.

According to Baton, the power outage experienced in some parts of the Visayas last August 21 also served as a wake up call for the LGUs to be mindful of the requirement for having COVID-19 vaccines stored in their areas.

“That’s why we encourage our LGUs to always consume their vaccines as soon as possible and not to store the vaccine for a longer period of time for this kind of eventuality, like power outage. The best way to consume it as early as possible,” Baton added.

More vaccines delivered

Meanwhile, another 128,700 doses of Pfizer vaccines were delivered to Cebu the other night.

This latest allocation is part of the 1,028,430 doses of procured Pfizer vaccines that arrived last Wednesday.

 Dr. Teodoro Herbosa, National Task Force Against (NTF) COVID-19 special adviser, said this latest Pfizer shipment is being deployed to local government units that have the capacity to store the vaccines using ultra-low storage freezers.

 Herbosa said, almost 70% of residents in Metro Manila are now fully vaccinated, while 98% have already received the first dose.

“Most of the newest doses are going to regions where the vaccination rates are lower, parang mga 10% palang or less in some areas. We’re distributing the vaccines to those areas,” Herbosa explained.

The country’s vaccine czar, Sec. Carlito Galvez, said during the Talk to the People of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte that Central Visayas is one of the regions with low turnout of vaccination.

Based on the data from VVOC, Cebu island has already administered a total of 1,915,353 doses. Bohol, on the other hand, still has administered 357,909, Negros Oriental with 263,670 and Siqujor with 59,068 doses. — Caecent No-ot Magsumbol, FPL (FREEMAN)