endIndex: The National Task Force on COVID-19 said contracts with companies that have qualified in the government s criteria for vaccine storage may be completed within the month. (FILE PHOTO)
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 20) The National Task Force on COVID-19 said contracts with companies that have qualified in the government s criteria for vaccine storage may be completed within the month. I believe critical terms have been ironed out so we are very confident that by January all the contracts will be finished, said Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez, Jr. when asked about the storage capacities for the COVID-19 vaccines, in a press conference on Wednesday.
Published January 20, 2021, 6:10 PM
Top officials of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 and the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) checked three cold storage warehouses that are being considered by the national government in storing millions of vaccine doses that will arrive beginning February.
NTF chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. and IATF head, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, led the inspection of the Zuellig Pharma warehouse in Parañaque City; Unilab Pharma Campus warehouse in Binan City, Laguna; and Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) warehouse in Muntinlupa City.
Galvez could not give the exact amount on how much it will cost the national government to pay for the usage of the pharmaceutical companies’ cold storage warehouses.
The inspection team’s first stop was Unilab’s Pharma Campus in Biñan City, Laguna.
LAGUNA, Jan. 20 The Philippines is ready for the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines following the inspection of several cold storage facilities by COVID-19 task force officials on Wednesday.
Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) Chairperson and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, who led the inspection team, expressed confidence that the vaccines will be properly stored and handled as soon as they arrive.
“We are quite gratified with what we have seen in our inspection. So far, what we have seen suggests very strongly (that) there is adequacy of cold storage facilities across the three different temperature ranges, the +2 to +8, -20, and -70 to -80,” Duque said.
The controversy involving coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines from Sinovac, a privately-owned Chinese firm, should provide a lesson on honesty and transparency for officials in the program, Senator Panfilo M. Lacson on Tuesday said.
By NICOLE-ANNE C. LAGRIMAS, GMA News
Published January 18, 2021 7:49pm Senator Panfilo Lacson on Monday said he suspects an attempt to overprice the vaccine produced by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac. In a privilege speech, Laccon said that the original price of Sinovac s product, at P3,629 or $38 for two doses or P1,814 or $19 for one dose, had it pushed through compared to $5 price in Thailand, spells a price difference of P16.8 billion for 25 million doses. Amid questions on the price and efficacy of Sinovac s vaccine, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III earlier said that the Philippines has secured 25 million doses of the product and that 50,000 doses will arrive by February.