DOH, IATF urged to expedite release of vaccines to LGUs

Senator Nancy Binay on Thursday called on the Department of Health (DOH) and the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to hasten the release of all COVID-19 vaccines from facilities to address the increased demand of vaccines for the A4 priority group.

"Ilarga na't i-release 'yung lahat ng vaccines na nasa government storage facilities. Sayang 'yung panahon kung paghihintayin pa natin ang mga tao hanggang next week. By then, baka tinubuan na ng mga dahon ang bakuna bago makarating sa centers. Clearly, there should be no excuses," Binay said in a press release.

(Release all the vaccines from government facilities. It will be a waste of time if we let citizens wait until next week.)

Binay noted that local chief executives have said that COVID-19 vaccines stored in government's facilities have yet to reach densely-populated cities and far-flung municipalities.

The national government started the COVID-19 vaccination of the workforce estimated at 35 million last Monday in a bid to help the economy recover from the pandemic.

According to Binay, the closure of some vaccination centers in Metro Manila is "unacceptable" as she cited the DOH's supposed failure to deliver vaccines on time.

"As of this week, marami pang bakunang nakaimbak sa storage facilities ng DOH kaya parang ang hirap tanggapin na walang maibigay sa mga vaccination centers sa Maynila, Marikina at Antipolo," Binay said.

(As of this week, a lot of vaccines are still in storage facilities of the DOH. It's hard to believe that there's no vaccine for Manila, Marikina and Antipolo.)

"Habang mayroong di nailalabas sa warehouse at nakakarating sa tao ang bakuna, technically, it does not serve its intended purpose. May buhay na nakokompromiso," she added.

(As long as there are vaccines not released from warehouses, technically, it does not serve its intended purpose. Lives are being compromised.)

Binay said about 9.3 million vaccines are in stockpile; 8.6 million have been deployed; and over six million have already been administered to individuals.

A million more doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech arrived in the Philippines this morning. This boosted the country's vaccine supply to 10.3 million doses.

Sought for comment, the DOH, citing the National Vaccination Operations Center, said 98%  of available vaccines have already been distributed to the different regions and implementing units.

"The Vaccine Cluster continues to improve its processes to ensure timely dispatch of increasing volumes of vaccines," it told GMA News Online in a message. —Anna Felicia Bajo and Julia Mari Ornedo/KBK, GMA News