Malacañang on Saturday said the government was looking into cases of Covid-19 vaccine spoilage and non-distribution of doses that were near expiry.
Health officials earlier said that some local government units had been summoned to explain why they failed to administer Covid-19 vaccine jabs before their expiry dates.
“Doon sa nag-front kasi na isang report na may nag-expire or hindi natanggap, we are still doing fact finding investigation. Wala pa kaming conclusion with regard to that, siyempre may natatanggap kaming report on the ground na dito sa ilang LGU may nag-expire daw,” Acting Palace spokesman Nograles said in a DZBB interview.
Nograles said that the distribution of vaccines in the country was systematic and took into consideration expiration dates.
“We’re very mindful doon sa expiration date na kailangan iyong ang unahin. May sistema po iyan no, depende sa date of expiration. Kung alin ang mas maaga kailangan iyon ang unang ilabas at i-administer,” he said.
The National Task Force Against Covid-19 earlier said a few hundred AstraZeneca vaccine doses were not administered and left to expire in November.
“[LGUs] will be asked to explain to the Department of the Interior and Local Government why (a) case wouldn’t be filed against them for wastage of government-procured or government-donated… government-owned vaccines,” Dr. Ted Herbosa, special adviser of the task force, said.
The Philippines has received 146,490,170 Covid-19 vaccine doses from different manufacturers to date. It has deployed over 90.6 million of the jabs as of Dec. 3. John Ezekiel J. Hirro