EDITORIAL - No dose must be wasted

The blistering tropical heat has increased the use of coolers such as electric fans and air conditioners. And the power grid is feeling the surge in demand. For the past few days, several areas including in Metro Manila have experienced electricity outages as power suppliers try to prevent any widespread blackout.

Yesterday industry players said the rotating brownouts could continue until June 8. That’s a week during which health and local government executives must ensure a steady low temperature for the season’s most precious items: COVID-19 vaccines.

Only last month, 348 doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac jabs were spoiled in Makilala, North Cotabato after being kept for a weekend in a freezer that was belatedly discovered to be unplugged. The vials had been transferred from the municipal health office storage facility to the freezer in a police station that had a generator after a power outage in the town.

The China-made CoronaVac can be stored at two to eight degrees Celsius in a regular freezer, like the COVID vaccine developed by British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford as well as Sputnik V of Russia’s Gamaleya Institute. The vaccines, however, still need steady cool temperatures, which can be compromised during brownouts.

The proper storage temperature is even more critical for the two vaccines with the highest efficacies as proven in clinical trials. The Moderna vaccine must be kept at below 20 degrees Celsius while the jab of Pfizer-BioNTech needs a freezing -70 C.

We’ve seen the jostling for the few doses of the Pfizer vaccine that have arrived in the country so far. The government has said it is expecting shipments of the Pfizer and Moderna jabs in the coming weeks. It would be a shame if the vaccines end up spoiled because a power outage compelled their transfer to an unplugged freezer.

Local government units together with health officials are responsible for the proper storage of the vaccines. Electrical networks and standby generators must be checked to ensure that they will be free of glitches. With the warning on another week of rotational brownouts, LGU and health officials must make sure that not a single dose of the COVID vaccines entrusted to them will go to waste.