Another shipment of COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Central Visayas on May 18, 2021. At least 52,800 doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac arrived in Cebu on Tuesday morning, May 18. | Photos courtesy of Radyo Pilipinas – Cebu
CEBU CITY, Philippines — A total of 202 doses of COVID-19 vaccines allocated in Central Visayas were left to waste, the Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC) said recently.
But Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, VVOC spokesperson, said the quantity of wasted vaccines was only minimal compared to the total number of doses successfully administered to the public.
“These are only minimal if you look and compute the total doses we have received. However, we look forward to no wastage in the coming days,” said Loreche.
Most of the doses of COVID-19 vaccines that were reported as wastage came from Cebu Island, which amounted to a total of 162. Of this number, 84 came from Cebu City, 74 from Cebu province, 3 from Lapu-Lapu City and 1 from Mandaue City.
These included vials that have been opened but were not administered due to ‘an incomplete number of vaccinees showing up’, and ‘errors in the extraction technique during aspiration’ mostly observed during the early stages of the vaccination rollout.
Loreche also disclosed that some vaccines failed to pass quality assurance protocols after health authorities discovered ‘defects’ and ‘floaters’ in them.
“We want to make sure that the vaccines given to you would be safe,” she said.
As of September 22, Central Visayas has received a total of 3,435,620 doses of COVID-19 vaccines and 2,625,035 of these were already administered both as 1st and 2nd doses.
In the meantime, Loreche said they were optimistic the number of wasted COVID-19 vaccines in the future would be minimized.
“We are upbeat that wastage will be almost nil already as our vaccinator teams are now more experienced and confident and more skilled in the techniques,” Loreche said.
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