COVID-19 vaccines will only be 'borrowed,' not recalled —Duque

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Friday clarified that vaccines from health facilities in the provinces will not be "recalled" but only "borrowed" for use in hospitals that recorded high number of COVID-19 patients.

"Ang gusto ko linawin ngayon ay hihiramin lang natin 'yan habang kulang ang bakuna at rumaragasa ang COVID sa [National Capital Region], sa Region 4A, sa Region 3, sa Region 7 at sa [Cordillera Administrative Region]," he told Dobol B TV.

(I just want to clarify that we'll only borrow those vaccines amid the increase in COVID infections in NCR, Region 4A, Region 3, Region 7 and CAR.)

Duque said the vaccines will only be borrowed from hospitals  with minimal reported uptake because only a few medical frontliners in these facilities got inoculated.

"Nakatanggap ako ng report na may mga ospital na mababa ang uptake [ng vaccine], eh sayang naman at baka abutan ng expiration gaya ng AstraZeneca na tatlong buwan lang," he said.

"Bakit hindi natin hiramin muna [ang vaccines] at dalhin dito sa may mga matitinding pangangailangan? Ginagawa naman talaga yan, matagal na naming ginagawa yan," Duque added.

(I received a report that some hospitals have low vaccine uptake, and we don't want these vaccines to remain unused and reach their expiration dates. So why don't we borrow them for the meantime. This is nothing new, we've been doing it in the past.)

To stress his point, Duque said "borrowing" the vaccines is no different from  health personnel being reassigned to hospitals that are facing emergency situations and in dire need of additional manpower.

"Ginagawa talaga 'yan [We're already doing this], part of management intervention," he said. 

A 24 Oras report on Thursday said Duque has recalled COVID-19 vaccines already sent to the provinces with low cases of infections to vaccinate more health workers and frontliners in the National Capital Region, the epicenter of the pandemic in the country.

Marinduque Governor Presbitero Velasco Jr., president of the League of Provinces of the Philippines, voiced opposition to this move.

In an interview with Super Radyo dzBB earlier in the day, Velasco said vaccine supply in the provinces is already limited as it is.

"Yung mga binibigay po sa mga lalawigan ay hindi naman po karamihan kaya palagay ko po ay mahirap yung kukunin pa sa amin iyon," he said.

(The vaccines given to the provinces were not that many in the first place so it would be difficult for us if they will be recalled.)  —KBK, GMA News