No exact date yet for arrival of COVID-19 vaccines

Vaccination sites should prepare substitute list of vaccinees – DOH

by Analou De Vera 

Manila Bulletin

There is still no confirmed date as to when the vaccines for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) will arrive in the country, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Wednesday, Feb. 10.

Health Assistant DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the COVAX facility only told them a “tentative schedule” for the arrival of vaccines here.

“Kailangan natin maintindihan (We need to understand) that the dates that were provided to us were indicative dates. The COVAX facility initially told us that by the second or third week of February. Now, this Feb. 15 is an indicative date,” she said in a media forum.

“Kapag sinabi natin na indicative, yan po ay tentative schedule pa lang, wala pa tayong confirmed dates as to when we are going to start. But definitely, pagdating ng bakuna, after two to three days we will start the deployment already… We will give you the exact date kung kailan dadating ang bakuna once we receive the confirmation from the COVAX facility (When we say indicative, that is just a tentative schedule, we do not have confirmed dates as to when we are going to start. But definitely, when the vaccines arrive, after two to three days we will start the deployment already … We will give you the exact date when the vaccines will arrive once we receive the confirmation from the COVAX facility),” she said.

Vergeire, meanwhile, said that all COVID-19 vaccination sites must come up with a Quick Substitution List (QSL) to minimize vaccine wastage. She said that the list must have  20 percent additional names of the total number of recipients in a specific vaccination site.

“We are pegging it, gusto natin meron tayo at least 20 percent. Wala tayong basehan sa 20 percent, pero gusto lang po natin makasigurado na kung sakali dumating tayo doon sa day of vaccination and we will have refusal, at least we have this reserved 20 percent (We are pegging it, we want to have at least 20 percent. We have no basis for this 20 percent, but we just want to make sure that we have a reserved recipient  in case someone refuses to take the vaccine on the vaccination day),” she said.

“We don’t want to have wastage (of vaccines)  in our program so we have this quick substitution list,” she added.

Vergeire said that the DOH will issue guidelines for the QSL.

“The standards will be finalized on who should be included in the QSL, which is also part of our priority list,” she added.