Quezon City 2nd District Rep. Precious Hipolito Castelo has urged the Department of Health (DOH) to come up with a centralized logistical system to ensure that the proper amount of doses of COVID-19 vaccines are appropriately inoculated to Filipinos.
The House Assistant Majority Leader filed House Resolution No. 1479, pressing on the need for the DOH to prescribe such system as the government is expected to roll out its vaccination plan by next month.
She noted the COVID-19 vaccines that have been rolled out require two doses delivered in two separate dates with a certain interval so that the vaccine will achieve its full efficacy.
“For instance, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine requires a three week-interval between the two doses, while for the Moderna vaccine, the interval shall be four weeks,” she said.
Quoting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the House leader said in the United States, after the inoculation of the first dose, the vaccinated individual will receive a “vaccine card” which provides details of the vaccination such as the brand of the vaccine and the date of the inoculation.
According to the CDC, the vaccine card tells the medical health professional in charge of the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine when the vaccinated individual is due for his second dose, she said.
“Considering that the anticipated national COVID-19 vaccination will be administered primarily by local health departments of the LGUs, the DOH is hereby urged to come up with a centralized logistical system for the identification, recording and listing of vaccinated individuals, similar to the vaccine card system being used by other countries,” House Resolution No. 1479 read.
Under the resolution, Castelo stressed that it is important to set up a system that will not be riddled with red tape to ensure ease and efficiency of vaccination.
“A centralized logistical system is also encouraged in order to prevent the proliferation of fake vaccines and illegitimate vaccine providers,” she said.