The country’s Covid-19 vaccine wastage is still within the acceptable threshold set by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Department of Health (DOH) said on Tuesday, Nov. 22.
At present, the WHO set the acceptable rate for vaccine wastage at 25 to 30 percent during this Covid-19 pandemic, said DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire in a press briefing.
“Nakapagbigay ang statement ang WHO, wherein they specifically said na ngayon may pandemya, because of this evolving nature of this pandemic, nasa mga 25 percent...ang mga wastage or operational wastage na tinatawag para sa bawat bansa because of these vaccines. Sabi nga nila it is around 25 to 30 percent (The WHO issued a statement, wherein they specifically said that now there is a pandemic, because of the evolving nature of this pandemic, the operational wastage of these vaccines is at 25 percent. They said it is around 25 to 30 percent),” said Vergeire.
During the Senate deliberations on the DOH’s budget on Nov. 18, Senator Pia Cayetano reported that 31.3 million doses of vaccines in the country were wasted. The figure represents 12.5 percent of the 250.38 million vaccine doses received and purchased by the government.
“The Philippines considers this as being still within that level, wherein it is acceptable based on the experience of other countries, based on WHO, because of the evolving nature of Covid-19,” said Vergeire.
The Health official said that other countries were also experiencing vaccine wastage.
“It is not just the Philippines that is experiencing this kind of situation in terms of logistics and supplies,” said Vergeire.
“We are seeing more and more that the other countries having this kind of expirations or wastage of vaccines and the other commodities that have been procured nung nag umpisa ang pandemya (since the pandemic started),” she added.
‘Bakunahang Bayan’
In a related development, the DOH is set to launch a nationwide special vaccination campaign called “Bakunahang Bayan” on Dec. 5 to 7, said Vergeire.
The campaign aims to ramp up the primary series vaccination coverage among children aged five to 11 and to increase the first booster shot coverage.
To further improve the vaccination coverage, Vergeire said that they are continuously collaborating with local government units, private sectors, medical associations, and non-government organizations to bring the vaccines closer to people.
As of Nov. 20, around 73.7 million Filipinos have been fully-vaccinated. Of this figure, around 20.9 million individuals have received their first booster dose and more than 3.5 million people have received their second booster shots.