The Illegal Sale of Vaccines
A nurse, a medical technologist, and a Chinese-Filipino were caught by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) selling 300 Sinovac shots worth P840,000, which led to an intensification of protocols at various government agencies. The Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center, the hospital that the nurse, Alexis de Guzman, worked in, claimed that he was never involved in the vaccination teams nor had he coordinated with their pharmacy to handle the supply and delivery of vaccines. In the next week, two suspects were also captured in a separate operation illegally selling AstraZeneca vaccines and using an innocent nurse’s Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) License.
In response to this, government officials said that the seized vaccines were not stolen from the Manila City inventory, adding that they have come from an unknown source. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Chief Eric Domingo also said that illegally bought vaccines are deemed unfit for use due to the lack of proper storage. Seized vaccines were often found in regular coolers—holding temperatures way above the required sub-zero temperature of most vaccines and some with even opened packages.
The NBI is currently working on finding the culprits behind the source of the vaccines while the Philippine National Police (PNP), Department of Health (DOH), and FDA vowed to intensify their crackdown on illegal vaccine vendors. President Rodrigo Duterte also responded to this incident telling the vendors, “Do not press your luck, you might regret it.”
Currently, vaccines are not allowed to be sold commercially as they have only been approved for emergency use.
Shortage in Vaccine Supply
In the past weeks, Local Government Units (LGUs) were forced to close their vaccination sites due to a shortage of first vaccine doses.
Pasig City, in particular, announced last July 7 the closure of some vaccination sites as they only had a few first doses left. With the 11,000 doses that Pasig City had remaining, they had no choice but to do this, especially given that their daily vaccination rate is 6,000 doses. Makati, as well as the other LGUs, were also forced to do the same and even halt most of the A4 (Essential Workers category) vaccination schedules due to a shortage of vaccines.
Influx of Vaccines to Come in July
With several areas still waiting on more doses to come, Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez assured the LGUs that approximately 13.3 million doses will start arriving again in around mid-July. Included in these are 5.5 million Sinovac doses, 1,170,000 AstraZeneca doses (arriving July 5-12), 250,800 Moderna doses (arriving July 12), 500,000 Pfizer doses (arriving July 12), 4 million doses from the COVAX Facility, 800,000 to 1 million doses from the US government, and 1.1 million doses from the Japanese government.
From this list, the Japanese government has already given their donation of 1.1 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines as a sign of celebrating the 65th anniversary of Japanese-Filipino diplomatic relations. Galvez also said that the doses coming from the US will most likely be single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines. Apart from the list above, 132,200 doses of Sputnik V—82,000 of which will be for first dose vaccinations—have arrived last July 9 while an extra 37,800 doses arrived last Saturday.
These additional vaccines are meant to boost the national vaccination program and achieve herd immunity, especially in high-risk areas such as the NCR region, and recently, cities like Manila have resumed their first dose vaccinations starting July 12. Based on the current data, more than 10 million doses have been administered and more than 2.5 individuals are fully vaccinated or have received both their doses.
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