Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Duque on Friday inspected some cold-chain storage facilities near the Ninoy Aquino International Airport where Covid-19 vaccines meeting temperature-sensitive requirements can be stored.
Duque commended the local government units (LGUS) that have set aside funds to indemnify their constituents who might suffer adverse or severe reactions following immunization.
“The LGUs are not precluded from doing that although the DOH has submitted to Congress an indemnification fund proposal.”
Ms.MA. Carolina Vidan-TAiño, DOH Undersecretary of Health Office: Procurement and Supply Chain Management said the DOH sent invitation to 14 companies to bid as major storage facilities for the Covid-19 vaccine importations.
She said the final decision on who among 14 bidders would be announced following a selection on February 11, 2020.
She said the department has also considered another mode of procurement, “the negotiated or emergency scheme” that would not be constrained by time frames considering the emergency nature of the Covid-19 vaccines being procured.
One of the bonded warehouses that DOH officials visited was the Royal Cargo warehouse, a five to 10 minute-drive from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminals 1 and 2.
Michael Kurt Raeuber, Chairman and CEO of Royal Cargo, said his cold-chain warehouse is prepared to store one million doses of Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines, which require -60 to -80 degree Celsius.
He said at the moment, the warehouse could store 400 thousand doses of Pfizer BioNTech vaccines and 640 thousand doses of Moderna Covid-19 vaccines.
“We are also constructing another cold-chain warehouse nearby so that we could increase our storage capacity depending on the cycle of vaccine arrival and distribution.”
He said from one million doses, his company is ready to store to two million doses, per month, four million and up to eight million doses until March, 2021.
Royal Cargo has about 40 refrigerated trucks that could meet the temperature requirements of vaccine manufacturers, from -60 to -80 degrees Celsius and the 2 to 8 degrees Celsius of the Covid-19 vaccine Moderna.
Mr. Raeuber said his reefer vans, as the refrigerated trucks are also called, has its own generator sets so that they could bring the temperature sensitive vaccines to areas outside of the grid.
“Our refrigerated trucks could be used as delivery trucks and as storage facilities at the same time.”
The company has about 240 smaller delivery vans or a total compliment of 300 refrigerated delivery vehicles.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez said he is prepared for the rollout of the vaccines following several simulations.
He said a time-and-motion-study would be conducted next week at the premier airport, starting from the arrival of the vaccines aboard a jetliner, “to the time the shipment is delivered to the airport of entry, to the warehouse, and then to the point of distributions.”
“This is to be able to see the actual time involved and that nothing is wasted and that those who would accept the vaccines, like hospitals and LGUs are fully prepared.”