DOH says some COVID-19 vaccines '' are about to expire or have expired''
By Robina Asido
The Department of Health (DOH) Wednesday confirmed that there are COVID-19 vaccines that ''are about to expire or have expired''.
"Yes, there are COVID-19 vaccines that are about to expire or have expired already because of their short shelf life," Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said during the virtal ''Laging Handa'' public briefing Wednesday.
"These are aggregation of donations and then procured by the national government, procured by local government and procured by the private sector," she said.
Cabotaje said as part of the DOH's effort to boost vaccination, the government will conduct house-to-house incoluation during the National Vaccination Day (NVD) Part 4 next week.
"The tentative date (is) March 10-12 so that will be Thursday, Friday and Saturday, our Bayanihan Bakunahan NVD Part 4. Our theme is 'March to Vaccinate,' because we will bring the vaccination to the houses and workplace," she said.
Cabotaje did not reveal the brands of COVID-19 doses that have expired and about to expire as she said the DOH is requesting with the manufacturers that its shelf life be extended.
"We are still verifying and validating the numbers we have requested for extension of shelf life. So, as soon as we are ready and we finish the validation, we will be ready on the developments, we will be ready to issue the final numbers," she said.
Cabotaje added that the administration of booster doses remained low as only one-third of the total eligible population received their booster shots.
"About 36.7 million are due for boosters. The booster doses that we have administered is ten million, so it is just around one third," she said.
"Some are still undecided if they still need a booster, while others, they don’t see the urgency of the booster," she added.
Cabotaje stressed the positive response to the administration of COVID-19 vaccines for 12 to 18 years old and noted the constraint on the supply of vaccines for five to 11 years old.
"We have a good response for twelve to seventeen and five to eleven. For twelve to seventeen, we started in November or later, we now recorded 66% fully vaccinated. That means 8.4 out of 12 million are fully vaccinated," she said.
"For our five to eleven only 736,000 were vaccinated. We are constrained by supply issues because only 2.1 million doses have arrived so far, half of which were reserved for the second dose," she added.
Cabotaje said the government is expecting the arrival of another 1.6 million doses of Pfizer for five to eleven years old today or tomorrow. DMS
