FILE PHOTO: Vials with a sticker reading, “COVID-19 / Coronavirus vaccine / Injection only” and a medical syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo in this illustration taken October 31, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic (file photo)
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Only a few, almost neglible number of AstraZeneca vials have been wasted in Central Visayas, and no expired vaccine has been inoculated to any individual who joined the National Vaccination Days this week.
The Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC) said this on December 3, 2021, on the last day of the extended National Vaccination Days.
VVAC spokesperson, Doctor Mary Jean Loreche, said that the vials, whose expiry dates, were labeled December 2021, actually had an extended expiration rate until March 2022.
As for the few AstraZeneca vaccines that have expired and returned to the national government, these are few among LGUs that it can be negligible. The VVOC has not given a definite number of vials wasted yet.
The national Department of Health (DOH) has also revealed that only 15,000 vials of AstraZeneca were wasted all over the country.
“Wala po tayong expired na bakuna sa ating mga vaccination sites. Tayo po ay natutuwa na yung mga binigay na bakuna na near expiry, for AstraZeneca, konti lang po ang naiwan na expired at hindi po yan galing dito sa Metro Cebu, galing po yan sa karatig na probinsya,” said Loreche in her daily press briefer.
We don’t have expired vaccines in our vaccination sites. We are happy that those vaccines near the expiry dates, for AstraZeneca, only a few expired vaccines were left and these did not come from Metro Cebu, these came from our neighboring provinces.)
Addressing the concerns of the public that Pfizer vaccines may have been expired upon inoculation, Loreche said that the vaccines had an extended expiry date.
Those with an expiry of December 2021 will actually expire on March 2022, while those with the an expiry of January 2022 will expire April 2022, so on and so forth.
She encouraged the public not to worry about the expiry dates because no local government unit (LGU) would inoculate expired vaccines or risk the health of their constituents.
Central Visayas has lagged behind in the vaccination among other regions in the country. On December 2, 2021, the region was 4th among all regions in the country with the most unvaccinated individuals.
Central Visayas has a population of 8,054,772. Seventy percent of this, or 5,638,340, is the population eligible for and targeted for vaccination to achieve herd immunity.
So far, 2,152,220 are fully vaccinated in the region, which is still far from its target population.
For the National Vaccination Days, the entire region reached 78.87 percent of its target inoculations with 644,706 jabs delivered from all four provinces.
This may be lower than the target regionally, but Metro Cebu has been successful in reaching far more than its target jabs especially the Tricities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu with 134 percent, 118 percent, and 174 percent achievement respectfully.
Loreche said this could be a game-changer for the region’s current vaccination status.
The hopes of the VVOC is to reach herd immunity or at least 80 percent of the target population by the end of the year.
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