The Department of Health (DOH) confirmed before a Senate panel on Monday, Aug. 15 the wastage of at least 20 million Covid-19 vaccine doses, which the agency attributed to the delays in the delivery of the jabs.

During the first organizational meeting of the Senate Committee on Health, DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said the main reasons for the vaccine wastage were its expiration, natural disasters, temperature excursions, discoloration or presence of particulate matter and other operations-related reasons.

According to her, the total number of vaccine wastage was composed of the following: six percent from the donated ones, 22 percent from those procured by the local government units (LGUs) and 40 percent from those bought by the private sector.

While the percentage of the wastage--8.42 percent--is still within the 10 percent acceptable limit of the World Health Organization (WHO), Senator Risa Hontiveros still expressed alarm over the figure, considering that the government and the people are spending billions of pesos to purchase the jabs.

"At this rate, by October, lampas na tayo sa threshold ng WHO (we will surpass the threshold of WHO). We might have accumulated vaccines faster than we could administer them. Nakakapanghinayang na parang patapon ang paggasta ng bilyong piso para dito (We seem to be throwing billions of pesos away because of this and it's a huge waste)," Hontiveros said. Currently, 92.31 percent of the total target population are already fully vaccinated, while only 21.76 percent have received their booster shots.

Vergeire attributed the high number of wastage to the delays in delivery, particularly during the time when the government doubled its efforts to inoculate as many qualified individuals as possible.

"If you would notice our trend when we plotted , we were able to sustain or initiate vaccination in the country through our donations... But most of our orders came in from July to December of 2021," she said.

"During that time... doon po pumapasok 'yung mga bulko ng naprocure nating mga bakuna. Unti unti rin yung pag expand natin... dahil alam natin na papasok... yung procurement, di rin po natin prinevent 'yung donations because our target keeps on increasing (During that time, the bulk of our procurements started coming in. But at the same time, we also expanded our program because we knew our procurements were coming. So we didn't prevent the donations coming because our target keeps on increasing)," she added, noting that "the timing of the deliveries is really crucial."

Because of this, Vergeire said the department came up with plans to avoid further wastage after analyzing the country's current stocks and consumption.

She said the country is "not going to procure anymore any of the vaccine until the end of the year" as she is confident that the country will still have enough vaccine doses until such time.

"Also we have requested the COVAX facility for the replacement of all of these expired vaccines and we have negotiated that the schedules be according to the scheduled need of the country," she also said.