Locsin says he sees a ‘pattern’
BY ASHZEL HACHERO and GERARD NAVAL
FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said government has “dropped the ball again,” this time on an offer to obtain 50 million syringes from the United States.
“Discussed the need in Washington DC and got a response prepared to go into details with PH agencies but they refused to discuss the ball let alone catch it. First Pfizer, then Moderna. Ok, I see the pattern,” Locsin said in post on Twitter on Saturday.
In December last year, Locsin said the government missed out on a chance to acquire 10 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine because he “somebody dropped the ball.” After Locsin’s revelation, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the government could have secured the Pfizer vaccine as early as January this year if only Health Secretary Francisco Duque III did not dilly dally in signing a confidential disclosure agreement with Pfizer. Duque, however, said there was dropping of the ball and explained then that the agreement was supposed to be signed by the Office of the President, and not the health department.
The National Task Force against coronavirus disease declined to comment. Malacañang and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases have yet to comment.
The Department of Health (DOH), in a statement, did not answer Locsin’s revelation but assured the public is enough supply of both 0.3ml syringes (microsyringes) that are compatible with Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines, as well as the 0.5ml auto-disable (AD) syringes for all other vaccines.
“We assure the public that the DOH is continuously ensuring a sufficient stockpile of syringes,” said Health Undersecretary Charade Mercado-Grande.
“We are continuously ensuring enough supplies of syringes for our COVID-19 vaccination program,” she added.
Locsin said no one would make a syringe as cheap as 4.7 cents a syringe, which he said the Philippines had offered.
“Far as I’m concerned it’s finished; but if you want a fight PH DOH offer of 4.7 cents a syringe is hallucinatory. No one on the planet makes special Pfizer low dead volume syringe that cheap. Seven cents is the absolute lowest,” the DFA chief said.
Locsin said the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) pays “double” the amount.
However, Locsin said, he does not expect the DOH to listen to him on the matter.
“No, I don’t expect anyone of them to listen to me; but now I know not to waste my time with them and embarrass myself that way,” he said in response to a tweet of Lacson who said the DOH should have listened to him on the US offer at the very least.
Earlier, the World Health Organization warned of a possible shortage of syringes for COVID-19 vaccine next year.
PROCURED SYRINGES
The DOH, in the statement, said two batches of 0.3ml syringes were procured through UNICEF. The first batch, which was funded through savings from 2020 UNICEF procurement, included 8 million 0.3ml syringes worth P29.1 million, and were delivered last October, the DOH said.
The second batch, which was financed through the Asian Development Bank, consisted of 44 million 0.3ml syringes amounting to about P152.6 million, with 4 million syringes to be delivered this month and the remaining 40 million in the first quarter of 2022.
The DOH also said it procured 100 million pieces of 0.5ml AD syringes last April 2021 for P2.38 per piece, from an initial approved budget of P2.50 per piece.
In addition, the DOH said there is also an ongoing emergency procurement of another batch of 50 million pieces of the 0.5ml AD syringes.
Ted Herbosa, adviser of the National Task Force against coronavirus disease (NTF COVID-19), on Saturday said the country has enough syringes that it can use, especially in the second “Bayanihan, Bakunahan” set for December 15 to 17.
Herbosa, at the of 2.9 million doses of government-procured Moderna vaccines and 698,600 doses of private-sector bought AstraZeneca vaccines, said the additional syringes especially for the Pfizer vaccines started arriving in tranches starting December 4.
He could not say how many syringes have been delivered but said that the additional syringes and other ancillary items needed in the vaccination program are being delivered alongside the vaccines.
He said some additional syringes are expected to be delivered this week along with more vaccine doses.
The country was expecting 859,950 doses of Pfizer vaccines, bought by the government, to be delivered Sunday night while 7.538 million doses of Jansen vaccines donated by the Dutch government are to be delivered in tranches from December 13 to 15.
The country so far received around 157 million doses of vaccines which would go up to more than 164 million with the deliveries this week.
The “Bayanihan, Bakunahan” phase one last November 29 to December had to scale down its vaccination target to nine million from 15 million due to the insufficient number of syringes, especially for Pfizer vaccines.
Herbosa said the country was able to vaccinate around 11 million during the “Bayanihan, Bakunahan” phase one and now targets to inoculate more than seven million in phase two.
Herbosa said vaccine centers will entertain walk-ins or those who did not pre-register for their first jab or even for the booster.
He reminded that those eligible for booster shots are those who were fully vaccinated in March, April, May, June regardless of brand of vaccine. Those who received the single-dose Janssen are eligible for booster three months after their inoculation.
As of December 11, some 92.675 million doses of vaccines against COVID-19 have been administered nationwide, with 54.64 million inoculated with their first dose, 37.27 million fully vaccinated, and 756,682 with booster shots.
Eric Domingo, director general of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), yesterday said focus must remain on inoculating those that have yet get any vaccine, instead of discussing booster shots and the possibility of advancing them.
“We should be in a hurry more in vaccinating the 50 percent Filipinos that have yet to receive even just one dose of the vaccine,” said Domingo. “To me, we should first concentrate on the unvaccinated.”
Earlier, Duque said government is looking at advancing booster shots to three months.
Requiring six-month intervals are the two-dose vaccines of Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, and Sputnik V.
Domingo said evidence shows the current interval set for booster shots are just right.
“Those are the periods when we start seeing the effects of the vaccines begin to wane or go down. Thus, that is the period we believe is perfect timing to give the boosters,” he said. — With Jocelyn Montemayor
