MANILA, Philippines — The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Tuesday called on all local government units (LGUs) to prepare for the distribution of the recently procured 40 million doses of Pfizer-BioNtech vaccines.
DILG Secretary Eduardo Año reminded all LGUs to be ready to receive and handle the vaccines when they arrive starting August which will “primarily be delivered in bulk.”
“This is a major development in our National Deployment and Vaccination Plan (NDVP). I call upon all LGUs and local chief executives (LCEs) to start their preparation to be able to properly receive these vaccines as early as now. Time is of the essence and we must do our duty to safely bring the vaccines to the people,” Año said in a statement.
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Año likewise directed all LGUs who are ready to receive Pfizer vaccines to coordinate with the Department of Health (DOH) Regional Offices so that their readiness can be assessed.
Año stressed that LGUs need “to ensure third party logistics and cold chain service providers for very sensitive vaccines like Pfizer, Moderna and Sputnik V.”
“We don’t want any vaccine to be wasted because of spoilage and mishandling,” Ano said.
To remain ready for use and ensure that they would not spoil, Pfizer vaccines have storage temperature requirements of -80 to -60 degree centigrade while Moderna and Sputnik require -20 storage temperature.
In a statement on Sunday, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said he and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III signed a supply agreement with representatives of Pfizer last Saturday on what is so far its biggest COVID-19 vaccine purchase deal.
Galvez also said that arriving vaccines “will significantly boost our national immunization program and will enable us to realize our goal of achieving herd immunity by year-end.”
DOH reported that a total of 8,407,342 COVID-19 vaccines have been administered nationwide with 2,153,942 fully vaccinated Filipinos as of June 20. Faith Yuen Wei Ragasa, Inquirer trainee
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