The Taguig City government has temporarily suspended the use of Sinovac Life Sciences’ CoronaVac vaccine starting Monday due to absence of a Certificate of Analysis (COA), which comes from the manufacturer.
In a memorandum dated June 28, the Taguig City Vaccination Task Force said the first and second dose vaccinations of CoronaVac are “cancelled until further notice.”
“The Department of Health (DOH) has informed us that the Certificate of Analysis (COA) for the delivered Sinovac doses has not yet been released. In accordance with the ethical standards of the Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) Regulation of the Food and Drug Administration, any COVID-19 vaccine should have a COA as part of the quality assurance and safety prior to its use,” the task force added.
Mayor Lino Cayetano said with the suspension of vaccination, the affected priority groups are A1 (health workers), A2 (senior citizens), A3 (persons with comorbidities) and A4 (essential workers).
“We will resume as soon as we receive the proper documents from the Department of Health for the latest shipment of vaccines, which we already have in our cold storage facility. We are working closely with DOH so we can immediately resume vaccination,” he said.
He added, “Rest assured that those scheduled today will be rescheduled. Those who are scheduled to receive their second dose today will be prioritized once we resume vaccination.”
The mayor advised people to wait for announcements and they will also receive text messages regarding the vaccination.
“I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. We will continue vaccination at the soonest possible time,” he said.
As of June 26, the Taguig City government has vaccinated 238,853 individuals with their first dose from A1 to A4 groups, or 35 percent of the target population of 680,000.
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COVID-19 vaccination in Taguig (Taguig City government / MANILA BULLETIN)