At least 32 COVID-19 vaccines were put to waste in Central Visayas according to the Department of Health – Region 7 (DOH-7).
It was confirmed by the regional health office on April 12 citing various reasons regarding vaccines that cannot be administered.
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of DOH-7 said: “For Sinovac, the reason for wastage is that upon opening the vial, the volume is 0.5 ml (milliliters) and this means it is not in accordance with the volume as directed for vaccination to be effective.”
“For AstraZeneca, there are instances the vial is opened with the pre-listed HCW (healthcare worker) but did not show up. We cannot store an opened vial so the remaining dose (has) to be disposed of,” she added.
According to the tally, 8 out of 32 vaccines were CoronaVac by Sinovac Biotech while the remaining vaccines came from AstraZeneca.
Loreche noted that all of the “wasted” vaccines were returned under the custody of DOH-7.
“It’s a very, very small percentage in terms of vaccines put into waste. Meaning to say we are very, very much careful with the vaccines because these are actually very valuable and very difficult commodities to get by,” she explained.
As of posting, the country has so far received only two brands of vaccines against coronavirus disease; AstraZeneca and CoronaVac.
One dose of AstraZeneca, manufactured by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, cost around P610 while CoronaVac costs around P3,600.
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