MANILA, Philippines –The Department of Health (DoH) attributed the wastage of Covid-19 vaccines to the high inoculation rate for the Omicron variant, which strengthened herd immunity and dissuaded people from getting booster shots.
The DoH said there was an oversupply of vaccines as the number of Covid cases dropped sharply in 2021-2022.
The DoH issued the explanation after the Commission on Audit (CoA) flagged the agency for the expiration of P11 billion worth of medical supplies, including 7 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines that were stocked in its warehouses.
In a statement, Health Assistant Secretary and Spokesman Albert Domingo also said the Covid-19 vaccination program “did not have the benefit of years of planning and preparation, like other routine and established vaccination programs.”
“Similar to many governments worldwide, the Philippine government, through the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases decided to have more Covid-19 vaccines available for all Filipinos at the soonest possible time, than none at all,” Domingo said.
He said that even as the national government announced that it would be procuring more vaccines, some local government units and private sector entities insisted on procuring their own Covid shots.
“As more and more doses arrived from the triple procurement efforts, there were even donations that came from the Covax facility and from bilateral channels (i.e., country to country),” Domingo said.
He quoted international studies showing Covid-19 vaccine wastage rates by up to 30 percent globally, with some countries like Australia having seven million wasted Covid-19 vaccines due to expiration and being unwanted.
Domingo said the DoH had informed CoA that it had created a Disposal Committee that is working on the remaining expired vaccines stored at DoH warehouses.
“CoA understands that “there may be no other resolution but to dispose the expired vaccines since no extension was granted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Once disposal is completed following standard Manuals on the Disposal of Government Property, the results shall be relayed to CoA,” he said.
The CoA has also acknowledged that the DoH Health Emergency Management Bureau has come up with guidelines on the management of logistics during emergencies and disasters, particularly for the proper storage of health commodities, to avoid wastage, Domingo said.
Be the first to comment