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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider DOH reports minimal COVID-19 vaccine wastage after 'Odette' onslaught

DOH reports minimal COVID-19 vaccine wastage after 'Odette' onslaught

Published Dec 20, 2021 04:02 pm

Despite the blackouts and intermittent power supply for days, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Monday, Dec. 20, that many local governments have been successful in protecting their vaccine storage facilities, mobilizing their vaccines to facilities with backup generators.

Vials of COVID-19 vaccines. (Keith Bacongco/ File photo/ MANILA BULLETIN)

In a press briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said due to this effort from the local government, the latest report from our National Vaccine Operations Cluster (NVOC) showed that there has been minimal wastage of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines due to typhoon Odette.

"This past week the DOH has been focused on working closely with our partner local government units (LGUs) in the regions to prepare and respond to possible damages caused by tropical cyclone Odette," Vergeire said.

"We are saddened to hear about the loss of lives and damage to properties and livelihoods in the hardest hit areas in Visayas and Mindanao," she added.

Meanwhile the DOH said that they are continuously monitoring and coordinating with the local governments to fully assess the effects of the typhoon in our regions.

Vergeire assured that they will work hard to retrieve any lost vaccines and that NVOC will also facilitate the reallocation of vaccines depending on the availability of supplies to ensure that everyone will have access to these life saving vaccines in the coming months.

Based on the reports from our health emergency and Management Bureau and from Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Typhoon Odette has affected 301,412 families from 2,983 barangays in regions IV-B, V, VI, VII, VIII, X, XI, and Caraga as of Dec. 19 Of this, DOH said that there are at least 103,271 families temporarily sheltered in 2,302 evacuation centers. To date there are seven damaged health facilities from Caraga and Region VII, with estimated damages pegged at P8.3 million.

As of Dec. 19, Vergeire said that the DOH Centers for Health Development (CHD), has pre-positioned a total of P11.8 million worth of drugs, medicines, medical supplies, health kits, including PPEs and other COVID-19 supplies to various provinces. Moreover, a total of P66.6 million worth of commodities are available at the DOH central office warehouse and over 272 million worth of commodities in our CHDs ready for deployment.

"Apart from pre-positioning and mobilizing resources to support the response of local health officers, our CHDs are in coordination with the central office for situation updates and possible resource augmentation. CHDs also deployed human resources for health in the members of the health cluster, to conduct rapid health assessment and provide support to the ongoing disaster response," Vergeire stated.

Related Tags

department of health covid-19 Department of Health (DOH) covid-19 vaccination program COVID-19 vaccines Typhoon Odette typhoon Rai doh
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