A woman holds a small bottle labeled with a “Coronavirus COVID-19 Vaccine” sticker and a medical syringe in this illustration taken Oct. 30, 2020. (File photo from REUTERS)
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Visayas Vaccination Operations Center (VVOC) assures that there is no expiring COVID-19 vaccine in the region by the end of June.
This was after the Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Myra Cabotaje said on Friday, May 27, 2022, during the Laging Handa briefing, that almost two million doses of COVID-19 vaccines would expire if they would not be used by the end of June.
READ: Almost 2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses expiring by end of June – DOH
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, VVOC spokesperson, told reporters on Friday that the region would have no expiring vaccines by the end of next month.
She said as of Friday, May 27, Central Visayas received a total of 11,083,947 doses of mixed brands of COVID-19 vaccines.
Of these, a total of 10,036,335 doses have already been distributed in various local government units in the region.
“These (the remaining undistributed doses) are in DOH-7 for our national government agencies for vaccination of their employees and families and also in case an LGU needs additional vaccines,” Loreche said.
Based on the DOH-7 COVID vaccination data on May 23, a total of 4,856,651 individuals in the region have already received the first dose of their COVID-19 vaccine which is 73.9 percent of the region’s target population for vaccination.
While 4,685,468 of those who received the first dose of vaccine also received their second doses already, for a vaccination coverage of 71.3 percent.
CDN Digital has yet to get the DOH 7 records on the COVID-19 booster vaccination in the region.
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