BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
Bacolod City will receive 5,850 doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines as soon as the inspection of the Ultra Low Freezers and cold room facility has been completed and approved.
Emergency Operations Center executive director Em Ang said that a team from the Department of Health and Food and Drug Administration conducted the inspection and assessment of the city’s ULF and cold chain facility yesterday.
She said DOH Region 6 Cold Chain technician Antonio Mallorca, regulations officers Gladys Mae Sanchez and Ma. Gina Joquico of FDA Region 6, and DOH pharmacists Joy Anne Marcos, Vanessa Marie Barredo, Jedabelle Corgos, and Angela Charmaine Fabio led the inspection of the city’s ULF.
Ang added that the ULF will be used to store up to 40,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine at negative 70°C to negative 80°C and cold chain storage for other vaccine brands with temperature ranging from negative 25 degrees Celsius to 30 degrees Celsius.
The team also inspected the infrastructure in the city’s cold room facility, specifically the capability to maintain the ambiance temperature requirement for storing the vaccines.
Ang also said that, for now, there is no need to launch vaccination on wheels in Bacolod because the acceptance rate of the residents towards inoculation is high, as evidenced by the long queues in various vaccination centers in the city.
She said the vaccination on wheels were conducted in Metro Manila since there are many vaccination centers there but only a few people were willing to be inoculated.*
