ILOILO City – The city government is studying the possibility of rescinding its contract for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines with British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca.
“Ginapatun-an ko sa City Legal Office. Waay na-deliver dayun ang mga vaccines and daw kadamo na sang aton nabakunahan (using other COVID-19 vaccines)….We will come up with a decision pretty soon,” Treñas told reporters.
The city government sealed a purchase deal with AstraZeneca for 600,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines at P500 per dose last January 2021.
It was a tripartite agreement with the national Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID).
So far, 180,300 doses or 18,300 vials have been delivered.
The deliveries were made on July 20, 2021 (17,200 doses); Aug. 26, 2021 (28,200 doses); Sept. 15, 2021 (21,500 doses); Sept. 24, 2021 (28,300 doses); Oct. 14, 2021 (28,300 doses); Nov. 5, 2021 (29,800 doses); and Dec. 28, 2021 (30,000 doses).
Funds from the city government’s Special Education Fund (SEF) were used for the purchase as authorized by a joint resolution of the Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Department of Finance (DOF).
During a recent press conference, Treñas said the city government of Iloilo just like other local government units (LGUs) decided to purchase COVID-19 vaccines on their own last year because the taskforce was too slow to act.
“Kon abi maayo tani pagdala…ang mga LGUs indi tani magbakal mo. (The taskforce’s pandemic response) was not handled well, to say the least that’s why nagbalakal tanan,” said Treñas.
Aside from the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines it purchased, the city government also received vaccine donations from private companies (23,700 doses in total; various brands) and were given, too, by the Department of Health (1,093,448 doses; various brands).
Here’s the COVID-19 vaccine breakdown in the city from DOH alone:
* Sinovac – 338,520
* AstraZeneca – 40,060
* Moderna – 246,320
* Pfizer (purple cap) for 12 years old and above – 411,198
* Pfizer (orange cap) for 5 to 11 years – 10,600/PN
