Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines to be given to LGUs with ‘capable’ storage facilities

The Sputnik V vaccines, which are expected to be delivered to the Philippines next week, will only be distributed to local governments with facilities that will meet the required storage requirements for the doses, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Saturday.

"The main difference would be the storage. The Gamaleya or Sputnik V needs to be stored in a dark place and a temperature not exceeding -18 degrees," DOH spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said in Filipino at the Laging Handa public briefing.

"Itong ganitong klaseng storage ay hindi makikita sa lahat ng lugar sa Pilipinas. Kaya pagdating ng Sputnik V meron lang po tayong mga assigned local governments that will receive because they have the capability to store this kind of vaccines," she explained.

(This type of storage is not found in all places in the Philippines. When Sputnik V arrives, there are assigned local governments that will receive them because they have the facilities to store these vaccines.)

CoronaVac or AstraZeneca vaccines meanwhile could be stored in regular storage facilities at two to eight degrees.

Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said Thursday that an initial 15,000 Sputnik V doses are expected to arrive on April 25. Another batch consisting of 480,000 doses will be shipped to the country on April 29, along with 500,000 Sinovac doses.

Galvez said 195,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine from the COVAX Facility might arrive by the end of the month.

The Philippines is set to receive 1 to 2 million Sputnik V shots in May and 2 million in June, he added.

Galvez also expressed hope that an initial 194,000 doses of Moderna vaccine would arrive in May. — DVM, GMA News