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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider Vaccines unaffeacted by blackout that hit Cebu -- DOH

Vaccines unaffeacted by blackout that hit Cebu -- DOH

Published Aug 21, 2021 05:01 pm

CEBU CITY —The massive blackout that hit most parts of Cebu and neighboring areas Friday night did not affect the stored COVID-19 vaccines, the Department of Health-Central Visayas (DOH 7) assured.

Dr. Van Philip Baton, DOH 7 medical program coordinator for infectious diseases, said the availability of standby generators kept storage facilities from bogging down.

“So far, our vaccines are safe because the generators kicked in and the short amount of time did not affect the temperature in the refrigerators,” Baton said.

Baton said most of the vaccines are already with the local government units and only minimal amount of doses is with DOH 7 storage facilities.

Power went out at 11:56 p.m., leaving most of Cebu, Leyte, Samar, and Bohol in darkness.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines blamed a lightning strike that hit its Cebu-Quiot-Colon line as the cause of the massive blackout.

Power supply was restored in some areas in Cebu at 12:52 a.m. It took at least six hours before all affected areas were reenergized.

The blackout only caused "slight convenience" in hospitals in Cebu City, said Councilor Joel Garganera, chairman of the City Council's Committee on Power.

"There were backup generators so power was restored within minutes," said Garganera.

Because of the incident, there is a need to revisit power supply in the city to prepare from eventualities should similar incident will happen again, Garganera said.

"We should have contingencies if similar incident will happen again. Especially during this pandemic, our hospitals can’t sustain longer power interruptions. We need to ensure steady power supply in our hospitals because this could spell a life and death situation for our patients," Garganera said.

Garganera likewise urged hospitals to prepare for power outages by ensuring the functionality of standby generators.

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