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PH Covid-19 vaccine wastage reaches 44 million - DOH

Philippines | National

PH Covid-19 vaccine wastage reaches 44 million - DOH

By Dhel Nazario

The Department of Health (DOH) reported on Friday, Dec. 2 that Covid-19 vaccine wastage has reached 44 million.

Coronavirus vaccines have been prepared for distribution at a vaccination site in Manila on May 18, 2021. (Ali Vicoy/Manila Bulletin)

In a press conference, DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire stated that the reports on vaccine wastage is progressive since they conduct continuous inventory every day.

"Nung isang linggo po nagrereport tayo ng total of 31 million wastage for our vaccines now it is already at 44 million based on our inventory (Last week we reported a wastage total of 31 million vaccines now it is already 44 million based on our inventory)," she said.

DOH has earlier stated that vaccine wastage is still within World Health Organization’s (WHO) acceptable rate. At present, the WHO set the acceptable rate for vaccine wastage at 25 to 30 percent during this Covid-19 pandemic.

According to Vergeire, 24 million of the Covid-19 vaccines were expired or were beyond shelf life while 3.8 million were from operational wastage which means it may have been caused by natural disasters, temperature excursions, and others.

She added that there is currently five percent of the 44 million vaccines that the agency has not determined how it was wasted. Vergeire also reminded the public this 44 million is 17.5 percent out of all the vaccines that the country has received.

She also disclosed that of the Covid-19 vaccines which were beyond the shelf life or have expired, almost 75 percent came from the procurement of private institutions as well as local governments while four to five percent were from donations and two percent were from the national government procurement.

Related Tags

vaccine wastage Department of Health (DOH) COVID-19 vaccines world health organization covid-19 vaccination World Health Organization (WHO) doh

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