The guidelines for the use of bivalent Covid-19 vaccines are expected to be released next week, the Department of Health (DOH) said.
DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said they are now in the process of finalizing the guidelines.
"We are already finalizing our guidelines. Meron na lang po kaming (We will have our) last meeting with our strategic advisory group of experts for emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases," she said.
"Pagkatapos nun, ipa-finalize na natin ang (After that, we will finalize the) guidelines with our execom of DOH for final approval. Hopefully, by next week, the guidelines will be out so our local governments can start with their preparations," she added.
The DOH recently announced that the Philippines is expected to receive over million doses of bivalent Covid-19 Pfizer vaccines next month from Covax Facility.
Meanwhile, the DOH is still in coordination with a certain country that has committed to give 300,000 doses of bivalent vaccines to the Philippines.
“Patuloy po yung ang ating pag-uusap (We continue to coordinate). We need to determine also the expiry dates of these vaccines that they want to donate to us,” she said.
“ so we can also determine kung feasible ba (if it is feasible) that we can utilize this number of vaccines before its expiry date,” she added.
Meanwhile, Vergeire assured the public that the country’s current stock of monovalent vaccines will not be wasted even with the forthcoming arrival of bivalent vaccines. To note, the country is currently using the monovalent type for its Covid-19 vaccination program.
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