Around P15.6 billion worth of COVID-19 wasted: senator
Around P15.6 billion worth of COVID-19 vaccines were wasted, Senator Pia Cayetano said during plenary debates on the 2023 national budget on Thursday.
“The 12 percent wastage cost is estimated, and the reason I have to emphasize estimated is because even the DOH (Department of Health) does not know the cost because this was procured through an NDA (non-disclosure agreement. So based on an estimate of P500 per dose…the cost is P15.6 billion,” said Cayetano, who sponsored the Health department’s 2023 budget.
“The total wastage is 31.3 million. And that is 12 percent of the total, which I will add, is within the allowed percentage of wastage. But of course, this does not mean just because this is within the allowed percentage that DOH is not striving to improve that number, Your Honor,” she added.
The reasons for the wastage of COVID-19 vaccines, especially those funded by COVAX, included short lifespan, temperature excursion which resulted in discoloration and presence of particles, being subjected to natural disasters, and underdosing.
Cayetano said the total number of COVID doses received was 250.38 million while the number of doses administered is 171.20 million.
Hontiveros then asked for clarification if the World Health Organization (WHO) had changed the accepted wastage rate of 10 percent.
Cayetano said that the acceptable wastage rate was initially 10 percent but eventually, WHO revised it to 30 percent when it found that in in low-income, middle, and even high-income countries, the wastage rate went up to 30 percent so they changed it to 30 percent.
“I don’t think it is meant to be an excuse. It’s just meant to show the trend and the realities. And the reason I wanted to put on record the reasons, is partly because the reality is that there is hesitancy,” Cayetano said.
Cayetano stressed that DOH had to intensify the COVID-19 vaccine campaign to prevent more wastage of vaccines.
“If their campaign is successful, the vaccines will be used. If they are not successful, the people will not only be left unvaccinated. They will be susceptible (to COVID-19) and worse, people will blame them (DOH) for the expired vaccines,” Cayetano said.
Hontiveros expressed disappointment that the vaccine wastage rose from 8.42 percent in August to 12 percent in November.
“It is saddening to know that within those three months, it rose to 12 percent even if it’s within the 25 percent ceiling of WHO…An additional 11 doses were wasted three months later..there’s also an additional P5.3 billion in estimated wastage cost,” she said.
Cayetano said the wastage of vaccines did not increase during that period, but the DOH corrected their data to include numbers from remote areas.
“Actually, the wastage did not increase during that period that Her Honor mentioned. What happened was that they did a complete inventory and discovered that in the warehouses are located in farther areas, because we have 7,000 islands. So there are still vaccines there. So what happened was, we now have a more accurate inventory," Cayetano said.
Hontiveros said the wastage cost of the vaccines would be equivalent to 4.83 percent of DOH’s budget going to waste.
“We know that our funds our limited. We have a small fiscal space. We are still recovering from the effects of the pandemic and recession. Every single peso, every single peso, every single percentage point is precious,” Hontiveros said.
Cayetano said that COVAX has substituted over 300,000 expired vaccines.
The Senate eventually approved DOH’s P323 billion budget for next year, ending more than a week of budget deliberations. Jaspearl Tan/DMS
