Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said the country “dropped the ball” on a donation of 50 million syringes from the United States.
“We dropped the ball again; this time offer of 50 million syringes,” he said in a post on Twitter.
“Discussed the need in Washington DC and got a response prepared to go into details with PH agencies but they refused to discuss the ball let alone catch it. First Pfizer, then Moderna. Ok, I see the pattern,” Locsin added.
In December last year, Locsin disclosed that somebody “made a mistake” that caused the country to miss out on 10 million doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines.
The scarcity of Pfizer syringes led the government to reduce its jab target from 15 million doses to 9 million doses for the three-day “Bayanihan, Bakunahan” Locsin… national COVID-19 vaccination drive that was eventually extended to five days from Nov. 29 to Dec. 3.
An official from the Department of Health, however, assured the country there was a sufficient supply of syringes until the end of the year as the products secured by the government through the United Nations Children’s Fund have begun to arrive.
Health Undersecretary and National Vaccination Operations Center chairperson Myrna Cabotaje said there was a slight delay in the delivery of the ordered syringes due to the global shortage.
At least 44 million syringes were ordered three months ago from UNICEF.
In the first tranche of four million, only two million syringes arrived. The remaining two million syringes are expected to arrive next week.
