( MANILA BULLETIN) Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. recently announced that initial doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines are expected to be delivered in mid-February through the COVAX facility. The government is aiming to inoculate 70 million Filipinos by the end of this year. As the public anticipates this vital initiative of the government against the pandemic, the question in mind would be:
Vaccine storage and distribution There are two strategies to store COVID-19 vaccines as these require specific storage requirements, said Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire. Vergeire said for vaccines requiring 2 to 8 degree Celsius and -20 degrees Celsius temperature, the supplier will deliver the vaccines to the DOH rented private warehouse or to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), “which will serve as the government’s centralized vaccine hub.”