Nearly 50 million COVID-19 vaccine doses wasted

MANILA, Philippines — Nearly 50 million donated and procured COVID-19 vaccine doses have been wasted in the Philippines, a senator said Wednesday. 

Sen. Pia Cayetano, the sponsor of the Department of Health’s budget, said that the country’s COVID-19 vaccine wastage reached 49.73 million. A bulk of the wasted COVID-19 vaccines were “expired or beyond shelf life,” the senator said. 

More than half, or 26.2 million, of the wasted jabs were donated.

“We’d like to emphasize that the shelf life of COVID vaccines is really short, only six months. And those that have been donated have a shelf life of three months. Some even have a shelf life of just one month,” Cayetano said in Filipino during the Senate plenary deliberations on the proposed P353.2 billion budget for the health department. 

“I don’t know if it’s correct to say, but in a way, it does not surprise the experts because with a shelf life that short, we might see expiration like that,” she added. 

Cayetano also said that the government will not appropriate any funds for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines in 2024. However, the country will accept donations of bivalent COVID-19 jabs from the COVAX facility.

More than 78.4 million individuals in the Philippines have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 since 2021. Only 23.8 million Filipinos have received boosters.