The bulk of the latest shipment of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccines will be used as first dose to ensure they are used up before expiring in midyear, a health official said Wednesday.
Interviewed on Unang Hirit, Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said 1.5 million of the 2 million recently delivered AstraZeneca doses would expire on June 30 and the other 500,000 on July 31.
“The 500,000 [doses] will be used as a second dose on those who got inoculated in March… The remaining 1.5 million [doses] will all be given as the first dose so we won’t have to rush.),” Cabotaje said.
Cabotaje said vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. vowed to seek other vaccines if the COVAX Facility would not be able to deliver the next batch of doses on time.
The DOH previously explained that no COVID-19 vaccine had an expiry date longer than six months to allow for possible changes.
Over 1.7 million individuals have been vaccinated in the Philippines as of May 4, still far off from the government’s target of inoculating 50 million to 70 million people this year./Willie Casas
In related developments, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III gave assurances there would be no wastage of the newly-arrived two million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine set to expire in June and July.
Duque’s statement was made in an interview with ANC after the National COVID-19 Vaccine Operations Center said that 1.5 million AstraZeneca doses will expire on June 30 and 525,000 doses will perish on July 31.
“We will make sure nothing will expire. It will all be jabbed, it will all be used for inoculating our A1 to complete the health care workers, the A2 for the senior citizens, and the adults with comorbidities,” Duque said.
Duque said 525,600 of the 2 million AstraZeneca jabs would be used as a second dose for those who already got their first shots. The remaining vaccine will be used as first doses.
Duque said they already coordinated with Metro Manila Development Authority chairman Benhur Abalos to achieve the 120,000 inoculation per day in the National Capital Region.
Last Saturday, 2 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from the COVAX Facility arrived in the Philippines.
The Philippines earlier received 525,600 AstraZeneca vaccine doses from COVAX Facility, a World Health Organization-backed initiative that seeks to ensure equitable access to vaccines, especially poorer nations.
But former COVID-19 task force adviser Dr. Tony Leachon said the Philippines might not distribute the recently delivered COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccines to private sector frontliners outside the priority list of the COVAX facility, the platform through which the fresh batch of 2 million doses were donated, a health official said Wednesday.
This, after Leachon called for the use of the AstraZeneca vaccines for frontliners in essential industries in the private sector to speed up use of the vaccine batch set to expire in June.
Essential frontliners in the private sector, including market vendors, store clerks, restaurant staff, security personnel, and media workers, among others, fall under government’s A4 category for inoculation, which is not among top priorities under COVAX, a global vaccine-sharing platform.
Meanwhile, the Cebu Pacific Air (CEB) delivered to the Visayas and Mindanao another batch of vaccine shipments, bringing to 2.5 million the total number of vaccines it shipped all over the Philippines.
CEB flew about 70,000 COVID-19 vaccines to the regions on May 11 and 12 in line with its program to assist in the continuous distribution of vaccines across the country.
The shipment comprised 4,760 doses for Bacolod, 7,600 for Cotabato, 18,075 for Davao, 27,620 for Legazpi, 6,200 for Puerto Princesa, and 5,320 for Zamboanga.
“We are happy to support our government in its efforts to curb the virus. Our country’s progress has been promising and we look forward to an even stronger collaboration between the public and private sectors. Rest assured, we are more than ready to continue flying these life-saving vaccines from abroad and across our widest domestic network,” said Alexander Lao, CEB chief commercial officer.
On May 7, CEB transported 1.5 million doses of Sinovac vaccine from Beijing to Manila, the largest single shipment flown by a Philippine carrier to date, in coordination with the Department of Health.
Since March 2021, CEB has flown over 2.5 million vaccine doses, over half a million of which were delivered to seven provinces in the country.