Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire confirmed that the government is investigating if Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines may have been spoiled in Makilala, North Cotabato.

"We are now conducting investigation, so we already coordinated with the regional office there to conduct initial investigation and submit to us the report," Vergeire said in the ''Laging Handa'' public briefing on Saturday.

"We will see if someone should be liable and what we should do after this, so let's wait for the final investigation report before we can give information about this," she added.

More then 300 vials of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines were reportedly feared spoiled after it was kept in a non-functional freezer after a brownout occurred on May 7.

Due to the brownout the vaccines were reportedly kept in a freezer powered by a generator, but the authorities failed to switch on the electrical supply from the regular power source.

Despite the incident, Vergeire said the vaccine wastage target remain less than five percent.

"On wastage, we are still on the target for wastage which is less than five percent. For now the probability that we see is that like what happen in one area where the vaccines were spoiled due to brownout, second when we open we see that there are contaminants," she said.

"To avoid this we already advise the local government units the implementing unit to make sure that we have standby generators especially in the areas that usually experiencing power outage to assure the potency of our vaccines," she added. Robina Asido/DMS