CEBU CITY—More than 100,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine that have been allocated for Region 7 can no longer be used.
The vaccine doses expired after they were not used within the prescribed period, said Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC).
Loreche said that, as of February 28, there were 171,703 doses of Covid-19 vaccine that have already expired.
The wastage was caused by last December’s Typhoon Odette as the Department of Health-Central Visayas (DOH 7) was forced to suspend vaccination drives in areas that were severely affected by the typhoon.
Loreche clarified that the number of wasted vaccines was minimal.
“These are considered minimal if computed against the administered doses. Most of these already-expired AztraZeneca vaccines would have not expired if we didn’t have super typhoon Odette. We were unable to do the vaccination as infrastructure were affected,power and connectivity out and manpower were mostly affected by the calamity,” Loreche said.
Loreche, who is also the chief pathologist of DOH 7, said Central Visayas has received around 10.1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine.
The region has already administered 8.9 million doses of the vaccine.
Loreche said that it cannot be avoided that there will be wastage.
“No matter what we do, there will always be wastage of vaccine,” said Loreche.