DOH to check discrepancies in number of Pfizer COVID vaccines sent to PH

FILE PHOTO: A vial and syringe are seen in front of a displayed Pfizer logo in this illustration taken January 11, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) said Friday it will look into the reported discrepancies in the number of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines that were delivered in the country from the Covax Facility.

Based on the report of vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. before the Senate Committee of the Whole on Tuesday, the country has already received a total of 2,469,870 doses of Pfizer vaccine from Covax.

This figure is composed of the 2,276,820 doses that arrived this month and the 193,050 doses that arrived in May, according to data from the National Task Force against COVID-19.

However, according to the website of Gavi.org — the Vaccine Alliance, the country has already received a total of 2,472,210 Pfizer vaccines from Covax, which Gavi co-leads with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners. This data shows a difference of 2,340 doses as compared to government data.

“Titingnan po natin kung bakit nagkakaroon ng [We will see why there are] discrepancies and differences. It might be due to the delivery process,” Vergeire told an online press briefing on Friday.

“Maaring ang naideklara ay kung ano ‘yung sinabi ng Unicef pero pagdating dito, dahil iniinspekta pa natin, baka iyon din lang ang numero na ating natanggap [Maybe what was declared was the figure cited by Unicef but we only received this number of doses based on our inspection]. So we will try to look at that difference and try to give you information in the coming days,” she added.

Unicef is leading efforts to procure and supply doses of COVID-19 vaccines on behalf of the Covax Facility for 92 low and lower-middle-income countries.

Vergeire noted it is the country’s vaccine cluster that can better respond to the supposed discrepancy in data as it is the government body holding an inventory of delivered vaccines. Sofia Vertucio, INQUIRER.net trainee

JPV