Reassigning of AstraZeneca vaccines not due to blood clot concerns – DOH7
This illustration picture was taken in Paris on November 23, 2020, showing a syringe and a bottle reading “Covid-19 Vaccine” next to AstraZeneca company and University of Oxford logos. (Photo by JOEL SAGET / AFP)
CEBU CITY, Philippines – The Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) on Thursday, March 18, clarified that their decision to pullout AstraZeneca vaccines from hospitals is not due to mounting health concerns.
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, DOH-7 spokesperson, said reallocating the AstraZeneca doses from hospitals to isolation centers, emergency operations centers, free-standing clinics and the like was part of their strategy to ensure all doses will be used before they will expire.
Loreche said the 30,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines delivered to Central Visayas last March 10 will expire this May.
“We pulled them out of the hospitals because of their expiration date drawing near,” said Loreche.
“It would be a waste if we will store them for much longer so they can be used as second doses. We must remember that vaccines are precious right now,” she added.
The DOH-7 spokesperson also said the redistribution of AstraZeneca vaccines here did not stem from international reports of blood clots from individuals who received the jab.
“We cannot waste even a single dose we have to be able to dispense of it equitably and at the right time, and to the right groups of priority individuals instead of saving them for the 2nd dose. Our workers from infirmaries, temporary treatment facilities, quarantine facilities, dialysis centers, free-standing clinics, and molecular laboratories are still part of A1 in the priority list,” Loreche explained.
A2, in the government’s COVID-19 vaccination priority schedule, refers to senior citizens. Medical frontliners, the top of the priority list, are tagged under A1.
The World Health Organization (WHO), on March 14, urged countries to continue using AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccines after cases of blood clots were reported in some recipients.
READ MORE: WHO advises countries to continue AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine
In the Philippines, DOH remained firm that it will not suspend the rollout of AstraZeneca vaccines despite these concerns that prompted some European countries, including France, Germany, and Italy, to halt their inoculation drives.
Several hospitals in Central Visayas have begun rolling out their supplies of AstraZeneca vaccines allotted by the national government.
This illustration picture taken in Paris on November 23, 2020 shows a syringe and a bottle reading “Covid-19 Vaccine” next to AstraZeneca company and University of Oxford logos. (Photo by JOEL SAGET / AFP)
Based on DOH-7’s data, as of March 17, 16.9 percent or around 5,000 of the 30,000 doses set aside for the region have already been administered to healthcare workers. / with reports from Reuters, INQUIRER.net
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