Malacañang on Wednesday said the country’s vaccine deployment had been facing delays due to quality-control checks.
“Alam ninyo po, iyong pagkaantala ay dahil mayroon po silang pinapa-process na certificate of analysis na kinakailangan,” Palace spokesman Harry Roque in a PTV-4 interview.
“Lalung-lalo na sa Sinovac, [may] pag-aaral para makita kung parehas ng quality iyong ibang mga dumating sa atin. So, iyon po ang dahilan kung bakit hindi mai-deliver kaagad,” he added.
Roque made the statement after Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso decried the slow vaccine distribution of the national government.
“Hindi po mabagal. Super bagal…Hindi ko alam kung pinatutubuan pa nila sa kanilang refrigerator itong mga bakunang ito,” he said in an online briefing Tuesday.
“If you believe that vaccination is the solution to restart the economy, bumalik sa normal ang buhay ng tao, dapat ang bakuna hindi dapat pinatatagal sa kung saan-saang bodega,” he added.
Roque said the NCR-Plus bubble, which includes Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal and Laguna, remained priority recipients of the country’s vaccine stock.
“Matapos na makuha itong certificate of analysis na ito ay diri-diretso na po iyong pagdi-distribute niyan dahil ang nais nga po natin sa lalong madaling panahon, lalung-lalo na dito sa NCR-Plus ay upang mabakunahan ang pinakamaraming mga kababayan natin,” he added.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier said that the NCR-Plus bubble could achieve herd immunity by November.
The Philippines has received 7,764,050 Covid-19 vaccine doses and deployed 2,395,494 so far. John Ezekiel J. Hirro