Tolentino: COVID-19 vaccine wastage possibly due to prioritization, distribution errors

Senator Francis Tolentino said on Sunday that COVID-19 vaccine wastage in the country could possibly be due to mistakes in the prioritization of COVID-19 vaccine recipients and the distribution of vaccines.

Speaking on Super Radyo dzBB, Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Chairperson Tolentino said that there might have been something wrong with the strategy for the vaccine allocation, with healthcare workers prioritized as A1, senior citizens A2, and people with comorbidities prioritized as A3.

“Opo ‘yung mga A1, A2, A3 baka may mali doon sa prioritization at mali ‘yung distribution. Baka mayroon pong mga lugar na hindi dapat ganon karami o baka mayroon pong mga ibang lugar na hindi naman dapat kaagad nabagsakan kasi regional po yung mga hubs natin noon eh,” he said.

(Yes, there may be something wrong with the prioritization of the A1, A2, A3, and the distribution. Maybe there were areas where there shouldn’t have been too much allocation of vaccines, while other areas might have received the vaccines late. Our hubs were in regions at that time.)

At a Senate Blue Ribbon hearing on Thursday, Department of Health (DOH) officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire confirmed that 50.74 million COVID-19 vaccines would expire by the end of March.

Tolentino said that the number of wasted vaccines might still increase in the coming months, given the hesitancy over getting jabs.

“Pero nung earlier stages po ng COVID vaccine, napakataas nung interes. Baka mali ‘yung proseso, baka mali ‘yung distribution, baka mali ‘yung information campaign,” he said.

(But during the earlier stages of the COVID vaccine distribution, the interest was very high. Maybe the process was wrong, maybe the distribution was wrong, maybe the information campaign was wrong. — DVM, GMA Integrated News