LGUs wasting Covid-19 jabs face sanctions, reduced supply

MANILA – Vaccine wastage poses health risks and local government units (LGUs) will be sanctioned once proven liable, warned the National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 on Friday.

NTF Chief Implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said that LGUs found incapable of storing or are mishandling Covid-19 jabs will have their supplies slashed.

“Ang nakikita nating isang sanction dun is, for example, ang nasira niya ay Pfizer, we will not give them anymore Pfizer. ‘Yung mga vaccine na talagang very sensitive na hindi nila kayang i-handle ay talagang mini-minimize namin na maibigay ‘yun sa mga LGU na hindi prepared at hindi well-taken care ‘yung kanilang cold chain solutions (One sanction we can think of is, for example, they mishandle the Pfizer vaccine, we will not give them anymore the Pfizer brand. We will minimize the deployment of sensitive vaccines to those LGUs that are not prepared and if their cold chain solutions are not well-taken care of),” Galvez said during a media briefing with experts from the Department of Health (DOH).

“We will sanction the concerned LGU and the vaccine safety officer,” he added.

With limited supply, Galvez said the country cannot afford to have vaccine wastage.

“So kailangan talaga na lahat ng LGU na makakatanggap nito, they have to really preserve the efficacy and safety of the vaccines kasi once na-compromise ang safety at saka storage, it will also endanger the health of our people (It is really crucial that the receiving LGUs, they have to really preserve the efficacy and safety of the vaccines because once they are compromised, it will also endanger the health of our people),” he said.

In May, the Department of the Interior and Local Government directed LGUs to submit a report on their Covid-19 vaccine transport plans to avoid wastage.

Galvez, however, noted the vaccine wastage in the country is “very minimal”.

One incident happened in Cotabato province in May when over 300 Sinovac doses were spoiled after being left in an unplugged freezer for more than two days.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said some 50 percent of vaccines are wasted around the world.

“That number is highly variable across countries, health care settings, and types of vaccines. But since there is typically no shortage of vaccines, it’s often considered the cost of doing business,” the WHO said in May.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited vaccine wastage incidents such as vaccine vials staying too long outside of a given temperature range; when the person administering the vaccines doesn’t use the full volume of doses contained inside each vial, such as when they don’t have the right types of needles to extract them all; vaccines vials are opened but the doses in them aren’t used within a certain number of hours, and vaccines not used by their expiry dates.