MANILA, Philippines — The bulk of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines set to expire soon will be administered as first dose, the Department of Health said Wednesday.
In an interview with ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the more than two million AstraZeneca vaccine doses that arrived in the country over the weekend will expire in June and July.
To avoid wasting the limited supplies of shots, Vergeire said 1.5 million jabs will be administered as the first dose, while the remaining 500,000 will be allocated as the second dose.
“We have distributed already and we are speeding up vaccination. We’ve seen that we can consume the vaccines and they will not go to waste,” she said in a mix of English and Filipino.
Dr. Tony Leachon, a former adviser to the National Task Force against COVID-19, said the government should allow the private sector to distribute AstraZeneca vaccines as millions of jabs near expiration.
“The government should just give the stocks that will expire in June to the competent private sector then let them do the vaccination,” Leachon said in a tweet.
“We’re still at the 40,000 to 60,000 vaccinations per day. At this rate, we can never finish the AstraZeneca 1.5 [million] stocks that will expire in June. We’re just halfway through them. What a waste,” he added.
The govt should just give the stocks that will expire in June to the competent private sector then let them do the vaccination.
They can just give back what they got when their stocks arrive in June.
The govt should open the vaccines to A4 Category already . @iamkarendavila https://t.co/LwTTwrzkie— Tony Leachon MD (@DrTonyLeachon) May 11, 2021
Widen vaccination
Leachon also said the government should start vaccinating the next priority sector, A4, which is comprised of frontline workers in essential sectors.
But Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, who chairs the national vaccination operations center, said the AstraZeneca shots cannot be given to those who are not included in the priority list of the COVAX facility.
“AstraZeneca came from the COVAX facility. The priorities are A1, A2 and A3 so we cannot give them to other areas,” she said, referring to healthcare workers, senior citizens and people with comorbidities.
Cabotaje also said the government plans to increase the average number of daily vaccinations to at least 70,00.
Vaccination in the country has been slow with 514,655 people being fully inoculated since the immunization program began in March, far from the government's goal of vaccinating 70 million. Meanwhile, over 1.19 million individuals have received first doses.