Over 20 million Covid-19 vaccines in the country have expired, the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed to congressmen Monday, Sept. 12 during the agency's budget hearing.
Leading the DOH contingent to House Committee on Appropriations-organized budget briefing was Officer-in-Charge Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.
"Among all of those that have expired, a big part of that would be coming from the LGU (local government unit) and private sector procurement," Vergeire said.
When appropriations panel Senior Vice Chairperson Marikina City 2nd district Rep. Stella Quimbo asked for the exact number of the expired vaccines, a DOH representative gave the number 20,669,354 as of Aug. 12 , 2022.
Of this, some 12 million doses are in the national warehouse, Vergeire said.
The rest of the expired jabs are in various regional warehouses, she said. She added that the DOH is currently conducting a re-inventory of the Covid-19 jabs in the Philippines.
The government began its rollout of the life-saving vaccines on March 1, 2021. A significant portion of the jabs came as donations from other countries.