ILOILO City – In this city, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines Sinovac and AstraZeneca are “slow moving” – they are less preferred by the public, thus their utilization is low, according to the city government.
The result?
A total of 466 vials or 932 doses of Sinovac vaccines from the Department of Health (DOH) expired on Jan. 1, 2022.
The said doses’ shelf life was three months from the date of manufacture — Oct. 12, 2021, as indicated in the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“May mga slow-moving vaccines like AstraZeneca and Sinovac kay may other preference ang mga tawo,” according to Joren Sartorio of the city government’s General Services Office (GSO) that is in-charge of the Logistics Cluster for pandemic response.
Aside from Sinovac of China and AstraZeneca of the United Kingdom, the city government has also made available to the public Pfizer, Moderna and Janssen COVID-19 vaccines of the United States.
Pfizer and Moderna appear to be popular with people here.
The 932 doses of Sinovac are currently “under quarantine”, said Sartorio.
“Set aside na sya, indi na sya magamit. Kadtuan sang DOH para ma-implement ang guidelines for disposal of expired vaccines,” he said.
Meanwhile, 5,894 vials or 58,940 doses of both city government-procured and donated AztraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines are nearing expiration.
Sartorio said 28,940 of these were bought by the city government; the rest were donations.
The expiration dates were February 2022 and March 2022.
“Nearing expiry na, that is why ginapangitaan gid ni Mayor Jerry Treñas nga magamit na, indi mausik. Amo na we’re donating sa mga neighboring local government units (LGUs) nga may need,” Sartorio explained.
The governor of Isabela province asked Mayor Jerry Treñas for vaccines against COVID-19.
In his letter dated March 1, Gov. Rodolfo Albano III requested for 20,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines, preferable those with expiry date of April 2022.
According to the governor, the provincial government of Isabela plans to ramp up its vaccination efforts.
“Your vaccine donation is very timely as our health workers from various LGUs (local government units) will go from house to house, even to the most remote barangays, to get the inoculation done, especially to our senior citizens and PWDs (persons with disablities),” Albano wrote.
Isabela is the country’s second largest province. It targets to inoculate 1,257,227 adult Isabeleños or 80 percent of the province’s 1.6 million population.
Albano noted that as of Feb. 28, 2022, 4.9 percent of Isabela’s eligible adults were still unvaccinated against COVID-19.
Also, only 10 of 36 LGUs were able to achieve at least 80 percent vaccination rate.
Meanwhile, Iloilo City has fully vaccinated 472, 032 individuals or 122.14 percent of its target population based on the Feb. 28, 2022 data of the DOH’s Regional Vaccination Operations Center.
It can be noted that Iloilo City previously donated COVID-19 vaccines to other local government units in Western Visayas apart from opening the city’s vaccination sites to non-residents of the city./PN
