Manila Mayor Francisco "Isko Moreno" Domagoso on Tuesday led the initial simulation of the coronavirus vaccination in preparation for the arrival of the vaccines.
Manila Health Department (MHD) medical personnel and barangay health workers manned the booths and desks to demonstrate the vaccination process during the simulation activity held at the Palma Hall of Universidad de Manila.
“This is part of our road-map to vaccination. In the coming months, vaccines will arrive in the country. In the coming weeks, vaccines available in the world may be approved by the regulatory agencies of our country,” Domagoso said in his speech.
Those who pre-registered at the manilacovid19vaccine.com website for the free coronavirus vaccines will undergo the following procedure:
• Checking of Vital Signs
• Screening and Verification
• Vaccination Proper
• Holding Area for Observation
As of yesterday, over 73,000 residents of Manila have pre-registered for vaccine slots.
They will be next in line after frontline health workers, senior citizens and other vulnerable sectors, and public school teachers.
Those who did not pre-register will undergo the following:
• Checking of Vital Signs
• Walk-In Registration
• Screening and Verification
• Vaccination Proper
• Holding Area for Observation
Dr. Arnold Pangan, MHD head said the process for pre-registered patients will take six minutes, while the process for walk-in registrants will take around 11 minutes.
After vaccination, patients will stay in a holding area for an hour for observation.
The data from the vaccination process will automatically reflect in the patients' COVID-19 Vaccination ID that they can access on the website.
More simulations
Domagoso said they will conduct more simulations on a larger scale in the future to identify the problems that they might encounter in the handling and deployment of the vaccines.
The simulations will also be used as a "stress-test" to determine if the city's health workers and equipment are capable of handling the vaccination process.
“While we are waiting for the vaccines in the City of Manila, gusto namin malaman... paano siya idedeploy in a small group. Ang susunod naman dito (we wanted to know how it will deployed in a small group. What's next is that), we will have another deployment in a larger scale,” the mayor said in a press briefing.
“Ang gusto namin ma-achieve kung ano ang mga posibleng scenario na pwedeng makapagpabagal o possible mishandling ng products. Inaaral natin ang possible future problems (We want to know in this simulation the possible scenarios that could delay or the possible mishandling of the products. We are studying the future problems),” Mayor Isko added.
The Manila mayor said they are eyeing schools in the city to serve as vaccination sites because they have open areas.
They are also considering controlled environments.
Stable internet connection is also a factor in choosing vaccination sites, he said.
Cold storage
On Monday (January 18), the city government received several refrigeration units that will be used to store COVID-19 vaccines.
Among the equipments that arrived are five HYC-390 refrigerators that can store AstraZeneca and/or Sinovac vials; two -25°C biomedical freezers and two -30°C biomedical freezers that can store Janssen and/ or Moderna vaccines; and three -86°C ULT freezers that can store Pfizer vaccine vials.
About 50 transport coolers are also expected to arrive soon.
The equipment will be installed in the Manila COVID-19 Vaccine Storage Facility in Sta. Ana Hospital that is set to be launched in a few weeks.
The city has earmarked a P250 million budget for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines but is ready to increase the budget to P1 billion depending on the need for the vaccines.
The city earlier signed an agreement with British-Swedish biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca for the advance purchase of 800,000 COVID-19 vaccines.