HEADLINES: MANILA, Philippines- Outage spoils vax rollout
.
DOE bares loss of 348 vials, orders co-ops and LGUs to be on their toes
The approach is similar to what was employed during the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, which the country hosted.”Based on this protocol, there would be three power backups.
.
The first line would be coming from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), the second from the distribution utilities, while the third and final back up would be the generators provided by the facility itself or the LGU,” Cusi said.
.
In the case in Cotabato, the vaccine cooling equipment was transferred to a generator set supplied by their municipal health workers.
“Unfortunately, and for whatever reason, it wasn’t connected back to the main line when the power came back.
.
It took two days before they realized that there was no longer any supply to the cooling equipment as the genset had already been turned off,” Cusi said.
Senators Nancy Binay and Christopher Go said the government must ensure that no vaccines are wasted.
.
Aside from the North Cotabato case, Binay noted that 7,500 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine had to be recalled from the Bicol region in March due to suspect handling.
.
While the recalled vaccines were later found to still be in good condition, Binay said, there should be no more close calls as the bulk of vaccines are expected to arrive soon.
.
“Let’s avoid oversight and carelessness on the ground given the complicated handling and logistics involved in bringing the vials to islands and far flung provinces,” Binay said.Go added that there was no room for complacency in the fight against COVID-19.
.
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, meanwhile, appealed to the Inter-Agency Task Force and the Department of Health to allow the vaccination of economic and government frontliners, categorized as A4 in the priority list, as soon as possible
.
.“So many vaccines have arrived in the country thanks to the efforts of Secretary Carlito Galvez and Secretary Vince Dizon,” Zubiri said.However, he said a lot of these vaccines are just sitting in storage, with many vaccination centers reporting a lack of people to vaccinate under the A1 to A3 categories.
.
“As a matter of fact, I have been told that some vaccination centers have allowed walk-ins so as not to spoil the defrosted and opened vaccines.”
