CEBU CITY, Philippines – The Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) has confirmed delays in the rollout of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines in Cebu.
This resulted from delays in the delivery of the vaccines by American pharmaceutical firm Pfizer to the Philippines, said Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, the DOH-7 spokesperson.
Loreche said in a briefer on Monday, February 15, that they received information from the national government that the arrival of the vaccines was moved to the third or last week of February.
“The vaccine delivery intended for our medical frontliners in Vicente Sotto (Memorial Medical Center or VSMMC) was delayed. There are some documentary processes that the manufacturer needed (to comply with),” said Loreche.
“We are informed that these may arrive within the third to fourth week of February and will be stored at the warehouse of RITM (Research Institute of Tropical Medicine) before these will be rolled out to us,” she added.
Both the Malacañang and DOH-7 earlier announced that initial rollout of the vaccines in the country will start on February 15.
In Cebu, at least 2,900 healthcare workers from VSMMC were identified as among the first batch to be administered with the vaccine shots.
But recently, the national government confirmed a hitch in the procurement of the vaccines from Pfizer’s BioNTech.
Vince Dizon, deputy chief implementer of the National Task Force Against Covid-19, disclosed last February 11 that the arrival of 117,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine via COVAX Facility will be delayed due to a hitch in the processing of documents.
But Dizon declined to say which documents were causing said delays.
Meanwhile, Loreche said executives of VSMMC are currently conducting risk assessment of their employees who have given their consent to receive the vaccines. / with reports from INQUIRER.net
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