Israel experts impressed by local handling of COVID jabs

The visiting medical experts from Israel were impressed with the private cold chain facility in Marikina City being used by the government for the storage, packing and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

On Wednesday, the foreign delegates inspected the place of Pharmaserv Express in Barangay San Roque and described the establishment as “excellent” after seeing the firm’s storage facility and the packing technology it being applied for the imported vaccines.

They were also satisfied after observing how the government’s private partner stores and packs sensitive vaccines that will be delivered to various parts of the country.

The Israeli delegation is composed of Adam Segal, logistics and operations manager of Salomon Levid and Elsein Ltd; Dafna Segol, consultant of Healthcare Policy and innovation; and Avi Ben Zaken, deputy director general of the Ichilov Medical Center.

The three arrived in the country last Sunday to help the Philippine government in its ongoing vaccination efforts against the deadly coronavirus disease.

Israel is one of the countries that has already lifted restrictions, such as its outdoors face mask policy, after successfully inoculating the majority of its population.

The foreign medical experts also shared Israel’s best practices when it comes to cold chain and logistics systems, especially when it comes to Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. 

The Philippines is expected to obtain millions of doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in the coming days.

Pharmaserv Express serves as the DOH’s third-party cold-chain and logistics partner for its anti-COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

In a meeting last Tuesday, the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) urged the local government units to create centralized hubs for vaccine storage that will cater to metropolitan areas and other key cities nationwide.

It also proposed the creation of storage hubs for anti-COVID vaccines that will be deployed in remote areas throughout the country.

National Action Plan vs COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier described PharmaServ’s cold-chain facility as “world class”, saying it could accommodate different COVID-19 vaccines that require various storage temperatures and distribute to various parts of the country.

The Department of Health also tapped Pharmaserv Express for the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in the Visayas and Mindanao regions. 

The firm has been working with the DOH for several years now to distribute routine vaccines across the country. 

The DOH has picked Pharmaserv as one of its logistics partners for vaccine distribution due to its vast expertise and experience in handling biothermals such as vaccines and blood products that are grounded on latest technology, operations protocols and workflows, manpower complement, and overall capabilities.