DOH Undersecretary and spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Government-owned hospitals and five big private hospitals in Metro Manila will receive the initial vaccines coming from Pfizer once it arrives in the country, the Department of Health (DOH) said Tuesday.
“We have the three designated hospitals, we have DOH-referral hospitals. We have other DOH hospitals here in Metro Manila,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told CNN Philippines when asked about the number of hospitals that would receive the 117,000 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the first batch of 900,000 doses of the American drugmaker’s vaccine.
“We have LGU [local government units] hospitals and we have five big private hospitals,” she added.
In a text message to reporters, Vergeire confirmed that hospitals in Metro Manila will receive the Pfizer doses, which require to be stored in -80 to -70 degrees Celsius facility.
She did not disclose the names of the health centers that would receive the vaccine shots.
Vergeire also noted that they are finalizing the masterlist of groups who will receive the vaccine shots.
The national government previously announced that it will inoculate first the health workers in four public hospitals, namely, Philippine General Hospital in Manila, Lung Center of the Philippines and East Avenue Medical Center in Quezon City, and Dr. Jose Natalio Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center (Tala Hospital) in Caloocan City.
It added that the first batch of Covid-19 vaccines are expected to arrive by mid-February as it is prepared to conduct mass immunization against Covid-19.