More vaccine wastage due to Odette recorded —NVOC

The National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) on Thursday said it recorded more vaccine wastage due to the onslaught of Typhoon Odette.

“As the time lapse from the time na nag-start ‘yung bagyo, yes we are recording more wastage,” Dr. Kezia Rosario of NVOC said at the Laging Handa briefing.

Initially, the Department of Health reported that around 100 vials of the Pfizer vaccine were wasted due to power interruptions in Iloilo.

According to Rosario, the NVOC has instructed local government units on how to determine which vaccines to save.

“We’re providing guidance on several ends kasi ang talagang priority is ‘yung safety pa rin ng ating mga bakuna, whether hindi sila naapektuhan with the temperature fluctuation, mga ganyan,” she said.

(We are providing guidance on several ends because our priority remains to be the vaccine’s safety if they were affected by the temperature fluctuation and such.)

Rosario said vaccines that floated on floodwater, vaccines in refrigerators that floated on floodwater, vaccines that went more than four hours without power, and vaccines whose labels had peeled off must be considered for disposal.

“With our report of the wastage, ongoing assessment pa rin kami ngayon because today kami mag e-extract ng information all over kasi ngayon lang din bumalik ‘yung teams namin na umikot from LGU to LGU to see kung ano pa ‘yung mga na-waste na vaccine o ano ‘yung status ng mga cold chain storages,” she said.

(With our report of the wastage, we have an ongoing assessment because we will be extracting today the information since our teams just returned from visiting LGUs to see the vaccine wastage as well as the status of the cold chain storage.)—AOL, GMA News