DOH asks COVAX facility to replace donated COVID-19 vaccines set to expiry

The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday said it has asked the COVAX representative in the country if the donated COVID-19 vaccines which are set to expire can be replaced.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire revealed they had a verbal communication with the COVAX point person in the country.

“There is COVAX point person dito po sa atin sa country at tayo po ay nakapagtanong na ng ganito. Kung saan sinabi natin na 'yung mga bakuna na naidonate sa atin that are set to expire, maari bang palitan nila para magamit pa ng ating populasyon, so sa ngayon po lahat ay being processed,” she said at the media forum.

(There is a COVAX point person here in our country and we have already asked if the vaccines donated to us that are set to expire can be replaced so it can be used by our people. So for now everything is being processed.)

“Lahat pinag-uusapan, hindi pa po tayo makakapagbigay ng affirmation para dito ngunit nag-aantay po tayo sa kanila ng official response sa ating katanungan. So antayin natin 'yan and we will be informing the public,” she added.

(We are talking about it but we cannot give an affirmation yet, we are waiting for their official response to our question. So let us wait for that and we will be informing the public.)

Vergeire said they are also still waiting for the approval of the extension of the shelf life for some of the COVID-19 vaccines that are in stock, adding they cannot give the accurate number of how many will expire in the coming months.

“We cannot give you an accurate number right now as to how much will be expiring in April, May, June, or the other months to come kailangan po natin kumpletuhin itong extension ng shelf life so we can get an accurate number para po dito (we need to complete the data on extension of shelf life so we can get accurate number for it),” she said.

Meanwhile, the Health undersecretary said the country’s vaccine wastage is only less than 2% out of more than 244 million that are in stock.

She added it is below the 10% indicative wastage rate used by the World Health Organization (WHO).

“Ang atin pong wastage sa bakuna ay ‘yun pong mga nag-expire, 'yun pong nasira dahil sa mga kalamidad o di kaya ay nabuksan ngunit may mga contaminants, o di kaya ay may mga precipitation,” Vergeire said.

(Our vaccine wastage is those that have expired, those that have been damaged due to natural calamities, or have been opened but there are contaminants or there is precipitation.)

“Ito po ay naghahalaga lang ng (This cost only) less than 2% out of all of these 244 plus million that we already have in stock and this is lower than the 10% [that] the WHO has given a standard for the vaccine wastage all over the globe,” she added.

Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Jose “Joey” Concepcion III earlier warned that some 27 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines the Philippine government has acquired are going to expire in three months if unused.

President Rodrigo Duterte also pushed for a house-to-house anti-COVID-19 vaccination program particularly in the countryside amid the expected expiration of millions of vaccine doses in the next few months.—AOL, GMA News