MANILA, Philippine — The local governments of Manila and Marikina have prepared their respective cold storage facilities for the vaccines against novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
On Wednesday, Manila City Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso personally inspected a room in Sta. Ana Hospital which is being set up as a cold chain management vaccine storage room.
Domagoso earlier announced that the city government will purchase initial 800,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca.
Marikina City Mayor Marcy Teodoro also said they have prepared a storage room in the city’s Health Department Office for the vaccines that are expected to be delivered in the coming months.
The Marikina government earlier said it has allocated P82.7 million for the purchase of the vaccines.
The Department of Health said that aside from local facilities, it is also tapping the private sector for the establishment of cold storage facilities in various parts of the country.
It is primarily considering opening cold chain hubs in Bicol, Cebu, and Zamboanga while the central hub will be in Metro Manila.
While negotiations for vaccine supply deals are ongoing, vaccine czar and National Task Force (NTF) COVID-19 chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said they are also working on the logistics, delivery, and distribution of the vaccines.
“Ang gagawin lang po natin is gagawa tayo ng magandang Gantt chart at saka yung synchronization matrix, i-synchronize lang po natin na kapag dumating kaagad ideploy natin po kaagad. Yun po ang gagawin namin kasi magaling naman po ang logistics ng armed forces, at saka yung logistics ng supply chain na pwede natin kunin kanilang services,” he said. – RRD (with details from Correspondent Joan Nano)
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