DOH: No contamination found in Moderna COVID-19 jabs delivered to Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines will continue to use the COVID-19 vaccine developed by US biotech firm Moderna, the Department of Health said on Saturday after Japan suspended the use of the jab due to reported contamination.

“Here in the Philippines, we inspect all batches of vaccine before we use them and we have not seen any contamination like that in the Moderna vaccines delivered to the country,” DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said partly in Filipino during a briefing.

“So we’re not going to stop the implementation of our Moderna inoculation,” she added.

The Philippines has so far received 4.26 million Moderna vaccine doses.

Japan on Thursday said it would halt the use of 1.63 million Moderna shots after contamination was found inside unopened vials. The Moderna said the reported contaminations involved one product lot distributed in Japan.

Vergeire also said only the use of contaminated batch was suspended, and not the whole shipment that Japan received from the US vaccine maker.

Since March, at least 13.5 million Filipinos have completed vaccination against COVID-19. — Gaea Katreena Cabico with report from Agence France-Presse